affairnoun [ C ]
uk/əˈfeər/us/əˈfer/affair noun [ C ] (MATTER)
B2 a situation or subject that is being dealt with or considered:
She organizes her financial affairs very efficiently.
He's always meddling in (= trying to influence) other people's affairs.
What I do in my spare time is my affair (= only involves me).
B2 a matter or situation that causes strong public feeling, usually of moral disapproval:
The arms-dealing affair has severely damaged the reputation of the government.
The president's handling of the affair has been criticized.
More examples
- The whole affair does not reflect well on the government.
- As a leader, he's been criticized for his inexperience in foreign affairs.
- He put his affairs in order before he went into hospital.
- I've never been very money-minded - I leave all my business affairs to my financial adviser.
- The director has come in for a lot of criticism over his handling of the affair.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Topics & areas of interest
- backyard
- ground
- in your backyard idiom
- item
- kingdom
- matter
- specialism
- specialty
- sphere
- stage
- subject
- subject matter
- sweep
- talking of sb/sth idiom
- talking point
- theme
- themed
- thesis
- topic
- turf
See more results »
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Situations and circumstances
affair noun [ C ] (RELATIONSHIP)
B2 a sexual relationship, especially a secret one:
She's having an affair with a married man.
The book doesn't make any mention of his love affairs.
an extramarital affair
More examples
- She discovered (that) her husband was having an affair.
- They have been rather indiscreet about their affair.
- It's an open secret around the office that they're having an affair.
- Their love affair began against a backdrop of war.
- She hired a private detective to find out if her husband was having an affair.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Relationships: infidelity
- a bit on the side idiom
- adulterer
- adultery
- bigamy
- bit
- cheat
- cheat on sb
- faithless
- fool
- fool around
- go off with sb
- inconstant
- mess
- play
- play around
- screw
- screw around
- side
- step
- step out on sb
See more results »
affair noun [ C ] (EVENT)
an event:
The party turned out to be a quiet affair.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Events and occurrences
- -athon
- a close call idiom
- a close/near thing idiom
- action
- all-nighter
- back story
- be (all) part of life's rich tapestry/pageant idiom
- call
- development
- event
- goings-on
- happening
- incident
- jamboree
- life event
- past
- spree
- synchronicity
- to-ing and fro-ing
- turn of events
See more results »
affair noun [ C ] (THING)
old-fashioned an object of the type stated:
She wore a long black velvet affair.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Objects - general words
- artefact
- artifact
- column
- conversation piece
- curio
- doing
- doodad
- doodah
- entity
- ephemera
- lot
- nick-nack
- object
- phenomenon
- piece
- shape
- such and such
- thing
- widget
- wisp
See more results »