love
//ˈlʌv//
informalForms
- Plural
- loves
- present (v1)
- love
- past (v2)
- loved
- past participle (v3)
- loved
- present participle
- loving
- 3rd person singular
- loves
Definitions
1.A deep caring for the existence of another.
- I love you more than you love me.
- I love to go to the movies.
- Open the door for love.
2.Strong affection.
- My love of cricket knows no bounds.
- A mother’s love is not easily shaken.
- I have never been in love as much as I have with you.
3.A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved.
- Open the temple gates unto my love.
- I met my love by the gasworks wall.
- O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!
4.A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.(colloquial)
- Hello love, how can I help you?
1.To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
- I love my spouse. I love you! I love that song!
- Just give me a reason, / just a little bit's enough, / just a second we're not broken, just bent / and we can learn to love again.
2.To need, thrive on.
- Mold loves moist, dark places.
3.To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like.
- "I love not that underlings should perceive my wisdom."
- “Everywhere he went, I went with him. When I was twenty-three, I had been nearly all over the world. It was a splendid life. I loved it.”
4.To seek the good or honor of (someone), care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
- For God so loued þe world, that he gaue his only begotten Sonne: that whosoeuer beleeueth in him, should not perish, but haue euerlasting life.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #233
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Very common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English love, luve, from Old English lufu, from Proto-West Germanic *lubu, from Proto-Germanic *lubō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“love, care, desire”).
The close of a letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like.