INTIMACY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does intimacy mean? 

• INTIMACY (noun)
  The noun INTIMACY has 3 senses:

1. close or warm friendship

2. a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship

3. a feeling of being intimate and belonging together

  Familiarity information: INTIMACY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INTIMACY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Close or warm friendship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

closeness; familiarity; intimacy

Context example:

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

Hypernyms ("intimacy" is a kind of...):

friendliness (a friendly disposition)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

affair; affaire; amour; intimacy; involvement; liaison

Hypernyms ("intimacy" is a kind of...):

sexual relationship (a relationship involving sexual intimacy)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A feeling of being intimate and belonging together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

closeness; intimacy

Context example:

their closeness grew as the night wore on

Hypernyms ("intimacy" is a kind of...):

belonging (happiness felt in a secure relationship)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "intimacy"):

togetherness (affectionate closeness)

 Context examples 

While I advanced in friendship and intimacy with Mr. Dick, I did not go backward in the favour of his staunch friend, my aunt.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was intimacy between them, and Mr. Cole had heard from Mr. Elton since his going away.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The intimacy thus begun between them was a material advantage to each.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

When she had finished it—So much for Isabella, she cried, and for all our intimacy!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth had been lately forming an intimacy, which she wished to see interrupted.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

My intimacy with Wolf Larsen increases—if by intimacy may be denoted those relations which exist between master and man, or, better yet, between king and jester.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I do assure you that my intimacy has not yet taught me that.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The Turk allowed this intimacy to take place and encouraged the hopes of the youthful lovers, while in his heart he had formed far other plans.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Intimacy includes emotional intimacy and physical intimacy.

(Intimacy, NCI Thesaurus)