noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/ˈɪn.tɪ.mə.si/
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:IH1 N T AH0 M AH0 S IY0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
Feeling or atmosphere of closeness and openness towards someone else, often but not necessarily involving sexuality.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Truth of Intercourse” in Essays, English and American, The Harvard Classics, Volume 28, edited by Charles W. Eliot, New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, p. 287, The habitual liar may be a very honest fellow, and live truly with his wife and friends; while another man who never told a formal falsehood in his life may yet be himself one lie—heart and face, from top to bottom. This is the kind of lie which poisons intimacy.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Intimate relationship.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
Examples
1787, Robert Burns, Letter to Dr. Moore, 23 April, 1787, in J. Logie Robertson (ed.), The Letters of Robert Burns, Selected and Arranged, with an Introduction, London: Walter Scott, 1887, p. 57, I have formed many intimacies and friendships here, but I am afraid they are all of too tender a construction to bear carriage a hundred and fifty miles.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Intimate detail, (item of) intimate information.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, especially, plural
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
close or warm friendship
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
the absence of fences created a mysterious intimacy in which no one knew privacy
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: familiarity, closeness
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: friendliness
5
noun
Meaning 5
a feeling of being intimate and belonging together
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
their closeness grew as the night wore on
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: closeness
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: belonging
Narrower terms: togetherness
6
noun
Meaning 6
a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
