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You love a girl. You also have a crush on another girl who works in your office. You also lust after a neighborhood girl. What word would you use to describe all of them? Your "romances"? Your "affairs"? Your "heartthrobs"? Maybe "amorous affairs" looks good. Is it possible to come up with a single word to describe "amorous affairs"? What is the plural of amorous?

It looks like heartthrobs is used for only men. Is there any other word to mean both men and women crush, love and lust?

I'm looking for the word to describe the list of people that I have a crush, love, and lust. I'm looking for one single word if possible.

So far, the best words I got are sweethearts and romances. But I'm looking for a better, more accurate word.

Still, if you're not sure what I'm asking Read this. If I have borrowed money, a property, a thing from the list of people, I can use the word "lenders" to describe them, right? So, if I a have crush on a list of people. On each of them, I have a different type of crushes like love, lust, infatuation, etc. Which single word I can use to describe them?

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    How about 'Passion'?
    – Varun Nair
    Commented Apr 5, 2017 at 5:22
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    I've upvoted Varun KN's comment, but may I also suggest "Romance"? I'm imagining this as a stat in an RPG, e.g., "STR: Herculean, INT: Einsteinian, MGC: Gandulfian, Romantic Interest in Relation to Player: Love."
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Commented Apr 5, 2017 at 9:41
  • This will be tricky, in part because they aren't all the same part of speech. For a general term, I would go with something like "degrees of attraction."
    – Adam
    Commented Apr 5, 2017 at 21:56
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    @T2E, does the word you're looking for refer to the horntoad described in the question, or the collection of his objects of affection, or to the emotion?
    – fixer1234
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 2:35
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    There is no single word that will work for this. If the person here is a male and you are listing all of his "Loves/Lusts/Crushes/Infatuations", you should head the column with the text "Women" and/or vice versa. If there is no physical intimacy currently with any of the people, the term "Prospects" will work.
    – LawrenceC
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 12:23

4 Answers 4

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I think love interests or romantic interests could work, given OP's latest context.

From tvtropes.org,

Love Interest
The princess to be rescued, or the Prince Charming to sweep the heroine off her feet. Or just someone that happens to become romantically involved.

It's a Super Trope so universal, that there are too many specific examples to list. There are a few in the list below.

The list includes Girl Next Door, Girl of My Dreams, and Hello, Nurse!.

When applied to real life, I think love interest is just as flexible. A love interest is basically a person that you are romantically interested in. This could range from something small, like going on a few dates, to something big, like love and marriage.

A romantic interest is similar to a love interest, with the possible nuance that a romantic interest concerns more casual relationships.

I wasn't able to find any reputable dictionary sources, so I imagine that the definitions vary from one person's opinion to another. However, if you call these girls your love interests, I think people will get the point that you are interested in them romantically or that you pursuing them romantically to some degree as described above.

By the way, you could also say that you are interested in these girls, or into them. They mean that you have a some kind of romantic interest in them, though it suggests a casual one. I don't think it would include "loving" someone, unless it's unrequited love.

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  • I think that love interest speaks only about a very close relashionship between a man and a woman. I've heard this in some film.
    – SovereignSun
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 7:18
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    @SovereignSun: If you look at actual usages of love interest, it more often refers to a potential for romantic involvement rather than a current relationship. google.com.eg/… In many films, the lead and the love interest spend most of the story fighting like cat and dog, but you just know that they are going to walk off into the sunset together as the closing credits roll up the screen.
    – JavaLatte
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 11:45
  • @JavaLatte This it too complex. Some say one thing while others say the other. I just hope we are both right!
    – SovereignSun
    Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 11:56
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+100

If you want a term to encompass all that romantic stuff, from the actual girlfriend/boyfriend to the crush on the neighbour to lust for somebody at work, the expression most commonly used in the UK is probably love life. Unlike your lenders metaphor, love life is a property of the subject, like somebody's financial situation, rather than a collective term for the objects of somebody's affection. For example, you might ask

How's your love life?

Because it's quite a broad term, you can use it even if you don't know much about a person's current situation: for example, you could ask this of somebody that you haven't seen for a long time, even if you have no idea whether they currently have a boyfriend/girlfriend.

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    Love life is a fine word but OP was asking about a term for the objects of his affection themselves, not a collective noun for his relationships with them.
    – lly
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 7:32
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The answer depends on the audience

The perfectly clinical expression is the objects of my affections, but you're not going to keep any of them for very long if they hear you describing them as such. At best, you're looking at an unpleasant weekend of trying to cheer someone out of a deep sulk.

To the girls themselves, there are many terms of endearment you could use for anything from a crush to your wife of sixty-seven years: honey, darling, dear, baby, sugar... assuming you don't just develop personalized pet names for each other.

To outside parties who might report back to one or all of them... well, first, unless everyone's on board with open relationships, don't talk about this situation to anyone who can report back to any of them. You're asking for a world of hurt, either from bros who want to salvage some of the wreckage when your love life explodes or from offended sistren who want to protect these poor women from your lechery.

Assuming you have someone you can talk to about this situation (an anonymous internet chat board for example), you've got to weigh your audience. If you're looking for cheers from the involuntarily celibate, it's standard for men to use derogatory terms to establish the women as captured objects: my harem, my bitches, my women, my girls, &c. Outside of cesspool subreddits and 4chan, however, that's going to get you a lot more anger than respect and kudos. You'd want something more neutral. I'd love your bounty but @Max already nailed that term down: it's love interests, simplified to interests or the people I'm interested in if the context is already established.

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If you are a boy and speaking about many girls to each of which you experience a certain feeling/attraction/affection then I guess this word might meet your requirements:

Another possible word is:

An uncommon and possible variant:

  • The objects of my affection

Stumble Upon ELU helpful link

If you are speaking about people who you have a crush on (with whom you are infatuated) then you call them crushes. However, Longman dictionary states that it is informal - someone who you have a feeling of romantic love for, but who you do not know well.

Another possible variant is loved ones. But it mostly means members of family and close friends.

I would also consider looking at the following love affairs, affairs of the heart, romantic entanglements.

Love life is a possible word too.

Also liaison formal for relationship.

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  • Like it, but not convinced to the level I want to. I like romances better than sweethearts, but not really convinced with romances as well.
    – T2E
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 0:49
  • I've edited the answer to suit your needs.
    – SovereignSun
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 1:07
  • Objects of sb's affection is perfectly accurate but clinical. Affairs, entanglements, liaisons, and love life all describe the relationships, not the people. Loved ones, as noted, are sb's family and include romantic interests only to the extent they're considered such. Significant others need to be significant and OP's question rather precludes exclusive relationships with these other people. 'Informal' doesn't mean what you think it does but crushes do need to be less serious and precludes developed relationships or deep love.
    – lly
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 7:37
  • Sweethearts is affectionate but only works for OP if he's in an avowedly polyamorous community.
    – lly
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 7:39
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    @T2E, I feel like these are a little more serious than what you're looking for. At this point, you don't know what category they belong in, so it's hard to call them your sweetheart or significant other, especially when they're only your SO...in bed :O :D.
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 8:57

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