limerence
UK/ˈlɪməɹəns/
limerence noun: an involuntary romantic infatuation with another person, especially combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one's feelings reciprocated.
Noun
limerence (countable and uncountable, plural limerences)
- An involuntary romantic infatuation with another person, especially combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one's feelings reciprocated.
- I first used the term ‘amorance’ then changed it back to ‘limerence’ […]. It has no roots whatsoever. It looks nice. It works well in French. Take it from me it has no etymology whatsoever.[1977 September 11, Dorothy Tennov, The Observer
- When someone is under the spell of limerence, not even being rejected dampens down the madness.2003 December 14, Andrew G Marshall, “That crazy little thing called love”, in The Observer
- Antonyms:
- nonlimerence
limerence meaning in Tagalog
limerence in Tagalog
- state of mind
- pagkahumaling, pagkahibang
Examples of limerence in a sentence
- But limerence, lovely as it feels, is a time-limited event—it lasts about five years for most couples.2010, Alyson Schafer, Breaking the Good mom Myth:
- Limerence is a state of overwhelming and unexpected longing for emotional reciprocation from another human, known as a limerent object (LO), who is often perceived as perfect but unavailable.2024 January 27, Amanda McCracken, “Is It a Crush or Have You Fallen Into Limerence?”, in The New York Times:
- I hadn't had much interest in limerence until I developed limerence when I didn't want to, when I was happily married.2025 September 20, Marielle Segarra, Clare Marie Schneider, Malaka Gharib, quoting Tom Bellamy, “A neuroscientist explains how to break...
- “[Dorothy] Tennov rejected the view that limerence is inherently unhealthy,” he says.2025 November 29, Nicole Madigan, quoting Sam Shpall, “‘Desire in one of its rawest forms’: what do we know about limerence?”, in The...
Antonyms of limerence
Forms of limerence
| plural | limerences |
|---|---|
| alternative form | limerance |
Origin of limerence
From limer- (“a coined, arbitrary first element”) + -ence. Coined by American psychologist Dorothy Tennov in 1977 as an arbitrary euphonious replacement or alteration of the word amorance.
Words formed from limerence
Questions about limerence
- What does limerence mean?
- Limerence means an involuntary romantic infatuation with another person, especially combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one's feelings reciprocated.
- What is limerence in Tagalog?
- Limerence in Tagalog is pagkahumaling, pagkahibang. See Limerence meaning in Tagalog.
- How do you use limerence in a sentence?
- But limerence, lovely as it feels, is a time-limited event—it lasts about five years for most couples.
- What part of speech is limerence?
- Limerence is a noun.
- How do you pronounce limerence?
- Limerence is pronounced /ˈlɪməɹəns/ (UK).
- What is the plural of limerence?
- The plural of limerence is limerences.
Words near limerence in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: limerence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-limerence.oga.
Cite this entry: “limerence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/limerence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.