Improve your vocabulary by Quiz

Use affinity in a sentence

Definition of affinity:

  • (noun) a natural attraction or feeling of kinship | inherent resemblance between persons or things | a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character

Sentence Examples:

These lists are classified according to the supposed nature and affinities of the various species, and show considerable advance in the sciences.

The tendency, however, is to exaggerate the points of difference between Spaniard and Catalan, and to lose sight of their fundamental affinity.

It is in the realm of the palate that we get the miracle of these affinities and antipathies in their most elementary shape.

They are generally of a deep tawny complexion, appearing to bear some affinity with the Moors, whose country they join on the North.

Their affinities of form and rhythm are less with ecclesiastical verse than with the poetry of the Minnesinger and the Troubadour.

Still another brotherhood or fraternity is that which arises from racial unity, the oneness of racial origin, producing ties of affinity and association.

Different attitudes of the imagination have a native affinity with different types of sensuous form, so that they combine, with completeness and ease.

When the affinity is allowed to act or is carried out, a chemical change, as distinguished from a physical or mechanical change, ensues.

No one has ever been able to trace any affinity between the Chinese language and that of any other people, ancient or modern.

The deadly cobras belong to a different group, having much more affinity with our own harmless snakes than with the vipers.

We demur to the suggestion that our ideas, as expressed in the July number, have necessarily any affinity to 'the dogmas of pantheism.'

He had found his affinity, had caught his adept, and had succeeded, without remonstrance, in making her one of the family.

The difficulty or facility apparently depends exclusively on the sexual constitution of the species which are crossed, or on their sexual elective affinity.

All that can at present be said of the specimens before us is, that they have miscellaneous, but no exact and definite affinities.

Beyond this feature they show many affinities with the reptiles, in their skeleton for example, and particularly in their reproductive organs.

Between the man who exploited the stone, and the great reservoir of the stone he exploited, there seemed an illimitable affinity.

The smoothness of the dressing depends upon a mysterious chemical affinity that is recognized by the salad-maker but never wholly understood.

I saw the "affinity between the two things," saw it in that afternoon's tireless warfare against the flower of professional cricket.

Now alcohol, with its intense affinity for water, absorbs it from the brain, and thus condenses and hardens its structure.

The whole case is preposterous; for where there has been close descent in common, there will certainly be close resemblance or affinity.

He had as much affinity with the sordid routine of a general store and counting-house as Tom Mitchell had with the angels.

Deprive it of its affinity for carbon, or substitute nitrogen or hydrogen in its place, and the air would quickly suffocate us.

Chromosome (color body, so called from its affinity for certain stains), a body of peculiar protoplasm, in the nucleus of the cell.

It was not in Bertha's habits to be neighborly, much less to make advances to any one outside the immediate circle of her affinities.

Hardy, it appeals to him not because of any temperamental affinity, but because he happens to be a curious, wistful spectator of human life.

A natural affinity was felt to exist between each dialect and that species of composition for which it had been specially used.

These considerations oblige us to conclude, that Volatile Alkalis have a somewhat greater affinity, than absorbent earths and metallic substances, with acids.

In the fierce heat of former ages they were mixed as in a mighty crucible, and few escaped the power of affinities thus engendered.

The perception of this bond, I may add, is the evident cause that naturalists make an ill-defined distinction between true and adaptive affinities.

Chemists do not speak of "elective affinities" in spite of there being a more accurate and not appreciably longer expression at their disposal.

The former of these consists of cyst-bearing molds, and from their nearest affinity to the foregoing will occupy the first place.

This is because of the conviction that the superficial resemblance between the two groups is accidental parallelism, in no way indicative of affinity.

Like all bases, it has a great affinity for acid, and consequently its first action is to neutralize part of the acids present.

Their true affinity is less the vegetable, however artistically prepared, than the salad, serenely simple, that discord may not be risked.

This acid (vitriol), having no affinity for lead, does not affect the kettle, while it would soon eat the one of copper through.

This likeness is not a mark of near affinity; it affects no important character, but only the shape and coloration of the wings.

Although the inhabitants of the separate islands show an astonishing amount of peculiarity, the species are nearly related, and also exhibit American affinities.

Under peculiar circumstances it has apparently been formed by precipitation from sulphide of carbon or some other volatile carbon compound by elective affinity.

In both cases his poetical affinity was with the poets of an earlier day, and his poetical manner something absolutely peculiar to himself.

Jogging along from one ocean end to another with the same wife for a thousand years without turning fluke to look at an affinity!

As frequently happens in the lives of reformers, Tolstoy found himself more often in affinity with strangers than with his own kin.

There is, however, no difficulty in fixing the systematic position of these exceptional species through other characters which show their true affinity.

The difficulty or facility apparently depends exclusively on the sexual constitution of the species which are crossed; or on their sexual elective affinity, i.e.

From the facts narrated in this chapter the reader will have gathered that similarity or dissimilarity of segmentation is no safe guide to affinities.

If, as frequently occurs, there exists no affinity, no resemblance between the two, a pawn must be given by the person interrogated.

It is only the man of extraordinary sensitiveness, the man of hypertrophied delicacy, who must search the world for his elective affinity.

The affinities of the blood royal to continental dynasties are not so cogent, though their material aid as sources of inner information is manifest.

Sulfuric acid has a powerful affinity for hydrogen, consequently, in damp weather, it is more or less reduced by the moisture in the air.

And it cannot be otherwise; for what the Creator has joined must have some affinity, although the palpable signs may elude our cognizance.

The voice should resemble the painter's pallet, where all the colors are arranged in an orderly manner, according to the affinities of each.

Total abstinence was such a firm plank in the platform of the celestial affinity that, even in the chafing-dish, alcohol had been tabooed.

The shank-bones being united, and the rudimentary tail create an affinity to the latter, whilst its arboreal habits are those of the former.

Owing to the slight affinity between iodine and hydrogen the acid easily gives up its hydrogen and is therefore a strong reducing agent.

If however it is "reduced" or changed to indigo white, it has, while it is in this form, an affinity for vegetable and animal fiber.

The universe was regarded by them as a vast superstructure built up from elemental particles, aggregated by some inherent force or mutual affinity.

Affinity, in law, is that degree of connection which subsists between one of two married persons and the blood relations of the other.

Frederick stammered, sought to find appropriate words to express himself in, and then plunged into a flowing period about the affinity of souls.

It is a bleaching agent, a disinfectant, and a very active compound, having great affinity for water, but it will not support combustion.

This circumstance gave a new impulse to the desire of acquainting myself with the philosophy, derivation, and affinity of the different European tongues.

The universe is made up of indivisible particles called atoms, whose manifold combinations, ruled by unalterable affinities, result in the variety of things.

It is known that the affinity of carbon for sulfur and even for oxygen only becomes manifest at a temperature bordering upon redness.

It had an indefinable affinity with the old face that looked out at her with its serene, smiling wisdom from the wooden photo-frame.

As elements have their affinities, as bodies have their attractions, as creatures have their instinct to live together, so men have their inborn mutual love.

We can exclude feathers from consideration, for these dinosaurs have no affinities to birds, and there is no evidence for feathers in any dinosaur.

With regard to organisms the Descent-school confounded the purely logical signification of the word "related" with that of blood or family affinity.

The poet felt within him some native affinities therewith, and longed for some stirring breath of heaven to sweep the harp-strings of the soul.

His self-confidence, his arrogant affinity for authority, his pride, and his ambition keenly barbed the prescience of this abnormal flatness of failure.

In opinion and sentiment as well as in physics, there are affinities that may not be resisted and antagonisms that no power can overcome.

One is a winged griffin, and both bear a close affinity to the figures of nondescript creatures carved on the early sculptured memorial stones.

Portion of the flattened stem of an extinct plant, from the coal measures of Yorkshire, whose affinities are uncertain; supposed to resemble the Yew-tree.

It assigned to them their laws, specific gravities and affinities, and appointed, beforehand, the combinations and collocations they were capable of making.

Common interests, affinities, and sentiments supply the place of family relationship, and make laws of amity and equity for them as a population.

In his friendships and affections, man is subject to some inscrutable moral law, similar in its effects to what the chemists call affinity.

That there is often a wondrous recognition of affinity, a sort of flash from soul to soul kindling the desire for closer union, is undeniable.

She laughed with quiet cynicism when she considered what Clovis's feelings would be if he could read the dark thoughts of his affinity.

A certain chemical affinity, as it were, makes the problem of intermarriage with the Polynesians an altogether different matter from that among Eurasians.

Between this and the pure English, there is a close affinity, as may be observed by any person indifferently well acquainted with both.

The gill region, at least in its outer part, shows no affinity during proportional growth with the neighboring region of the pectoral fin.

He showed with what vital affinity religion cleaves to humanity, in all its true and simple phases, when uncontaminated by conceit or frivolity.

This sexual affinity constitutes more than mere admiration, or transient passion or erotic anxiety: everlasting contentment and felicity will follow such natural adaptation.

Whatever its inconsistencies and defects, there is undeniably the charm of beauty and interest about the place, but it has no architectural affinities.

Now the fertility of first crosses between species, and of the hybrids produced from them, is largely governed by their systematic affinity.

The advice of an enthusiastic idealist, Puritan by the accident of his times, but whose true affinities were with Mill and Shelley and Rousseau.

No distinct line of cleavage where affinity to other chemicals left off and sentient selectivity began marked the distinction here as in that protoplasm.

It is therefore impossible to hold that either soul or intellect, although the latter has certain affinities to imperishable intelligence, should survive the body.

There is hardly anything more wonderful in nature than the sensitiveness of the sexual elements to external influences, and the delicacy of their affinities.

In the lower numerals of remote dialects there are many seemingly strange affinities, which may be attributed to their frequent use in trading transactions.

He was acquainted with others who carried their heads much higher than himself, who yet suffered the convenient degradation of commercial affinities.

The accompanying plate gives so good an idea of this bird, which has no affinities with any other species, that further description is unnecessary.

I suppose we may allow, in these advanced times, that it is something like magnetism which decides the question of affinity and its reverse.

Indian architecture is in much closer affinity to the great conceptions of the Gothic builders than it is to anything of classic or Renaissance construction.

Their popular effusions are original; although, likewise, between them and the popular poetry of their Bohemian brethren, a close affinity cannot be denied.

Sooner or later his vigilance is circumvented and the metal that he has extricated by the fiery furnace returns to its natural affinity.

Did the tenants of the fatal ledge recognize some mysterious affinity which made them tributary to the cold glitter of her diamond eyes?

These objects, although not methodically arranged, are often placed in such a manner as to indicate that the author had some idea of generic affinity.

As you look about you at the environment in which you find yourself, you experience a premonition that you are nearing an affinity in the landlady world.

Such are some of the more prominent characters of this remarkable substance, which exhibits a permanence and want of affinity extraordinary in an animal principle.

His father was the only son of an only son, which drives all affinity on the paternal side into fourth and fifth kinsmen.

On these same principles we see how it is, that the mutual affinities of the species and genera within each class are so complex and circuitous.

Was it another case of mental affinity which had induced him unconsciously to choose a gold brooch with two swallows in gold and pearls?