Synonyms for intimacy
ˈɪn tə mə siin·ti·ma·cy

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. intimacy

   Acquaintance between persons supposes that each knows the other; we may know a public man by his writings or speeches, and by sight, but can not claim acquaintance unless he personally knows us. There may be pleasant acquaintance with little companionship; and conversely, much companionship with little acquaintance, as between busy clerks at adjoining desks. So there may be association in business without intimacy or friendship. Acquaintance admits of many degrees, from a slight or passing to a familiar or intimate acquaintance; but acquaintance unmodified commonly signifies less than familiarity or intimacy. As regards persons, familiarity is becoming restricted to the undesirable sense, as in the proverb, "Familiarity breeds contempt;" hence, in personal relations, the word intimacy, which refers to mutual knowledge of thought and feeling, is now uniformly preferred. Friendship includes acquaintance with some degree of intimacy, and ordinarily companionship, though in a wider sense friendship may exist between those who have never met, but know each other only by word and deed. Acquaintance does not involve friendship, for one may be well acquainted with an enemy. Fellowship involves not merely acquaintance and companionship, but sympathy as well. There may be much friendship without much fellowship, as between those whose homes or pursuits are far apart. There may be pleasant fellowship which does not reach the fulness of friendship. Compare ATTACHMENT; FRIENDSHIP; LOVE. As regards studies, pursuits, etc., acquaintance is less than familiarity, which supposes minute knowledge of particulars, arising often from long experience or association.

   Synonyms:
   acquaintance, association, companionship, experience, familiarity, fellowship, friendship, knowledge

   Antonyms:
   ignorance, ignoring, inexperience, unfamiliarity

   Preposition:
   Acquaintance with a subject; of one person with another; between persons.

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. familiarity, intimacy, closenessnoun

   close or warm friendship

   "the absence of fences created a mysterious intimacy in which no one knew privacy"

   Synonyms:
   conversance, affaire, conversancy, parsimoniousness, amour, impropriety, casualness, meanness, liberty, niggardliness, liaison, closeness, nearness, affair, involvement, acquaintance, familiarity, tightfistedness, secretiveness, minginess, stuffiness, tightness, indecorum, niggardness, parsimony

2. affair, affaire, intimacy, liaison, involvement, amournoun

   a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship

   Synonyms:
   affaire, social function, engagement, amour, involution, participation, function, matter, affair, inter-group communication, liaison, thing, occasion, involvement, familiarity, social occasion, link, closeness, contact, interest

3. closeness, intimacynoun

   a feeling of being intimate and belonging together

   "their closeness grew as the night wore on"

   Synonyms:
   affaire, nearness, parsimoniousness, amour, stuffiness, affair, niggardliness, liaison, closeness, tightfistedness, involvement, familiarity, secretiveness, minginess, tightness, meanness, niggardness, parsimony

Matched Categories

1. • Belonging
   • Friendliness
   • Sexual Relationship

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. intimacynoun

   Synonyms:
   familiarity, fellowship, friendship, close acquaintance

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "intimacy":

   privacy, closeness

Suggested Resources

1. intimacy

   The intimacy symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the intimacy symbol and its characteristic.

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How to use intimacy in a sentence?

1. Kathleen Turner:

   Yes, yuck. He has this gross handshake, he goes to shake your hand and with his index finger kind of rubs the inside of your wrist. He’s trying to do some kind of seductive intimacy move. You pull your hand away and goyuck.

2. Julie Swets:

   What nostalgia is is this feeling of connectedness with other people, so, people who are a little more avoidant of intimacy with other people, or more likely to prefer distance over close relationships... those people don't reap the same benefits of nostalgia.

3. Lisa Haisha:

   Here’s a little secret: ironically, people with dominant Seductor Imposters might seem to crave intimacy—they certainly draw people into their orbit with the promise of it—but what actually animates them behind the scenes is fear of it.

4. Sam Erman:

   Certainly, on issues of same-sex intimacy and commitment, he has seen the Constitution as protecting those spheres. I don't think many people were terribly surprised.

5. Carolyn Heilbrun:

   The married are those who have taken the terrible risk of intimacy and, having taken it, know life without intimacy to be impossible.