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favor

Pronunciation: /ˈfeɪ.və/

The English word “favor” has 17 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A kind or helpful deed; an instance of voluntarily assisting (someone).
  2. Goodwill; benevolent regard.
  3. A small gift; a party favor.
  4. Mildness or mitigation of punishment; lenity.
  5. The object of regard; person or thing favoured.
  6. Appearance; look; countenance; face.
  7. Partiality; bias
  8. A letter, a written communication.
  9. A resemblance, likeness.
  10. Anything worn publicly as a pledge of a woman's favor.
  11. A ribbon or similar small item that is worn as an adornment, especially in celebration of an event.

verb

  1. To look upon fondly; to prefer.
  2. To use more often.
  3. To encourage, conduce to
  4. To do a favor [noun sense 1] for; to show beneficence toward.
  5. To resemble; especially, to look like (another person).
  6. To treat or use (something) gently

Etymology

From Middle English favour, favor, faver, from Anglo-Norman favour, from mainland Old French favor, from Latin favor (“good will; kindness; partiality”), from faveō (“to be kind to”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂weh₁yeti (“to be favourable to”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine, glow light”). Respelled in American English to more closely match its Latin etymon.…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.