• (America) IPA: /əˈfɛɹ/
• (otherwise) (America) IPA: /əˈfɛə(ɹ)/
• (RP) IPA: /əˈfɛə/

affair (plural affairs)

1. (often in the plural) Something which is done or is to be done; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public.

   a difficult affair to manage

   Synonyms: matter, concern

2. Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely.

   an affair of honor, a duel;  an affair of love, an intrigue

3. (military) An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.
4. A material object (vaguely designated).

   He used a hook-shaped affair with a long handle to unlock the car.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:

     The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.

5. An adulterous relationship. (from affaire de cœur).
6. A romantic relationship with someone who is not one's regular partner (boyfriend, girlfriend).
7. A person with whom someone has an adulterous relationship.
8. A party or social gathering, especially of a formal nature.
9. (slang, now, rare) The (male or female) genitals.
   • 1748, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure:

     [S]he, with the greatest effrontery imaginable, unbuttons his breeches, and removing his shirt, draws out his affair, so shrunk and diminished that I could not but remember the difference, now cresfallen, or just faintly lifting its head.

• German: Angelegenheit
• Italian: affare
• Portuguese: negócio, afazer
• Russian: дела́
• Spanish: negocio

• German: Angelegenheit
• Portuguese: assunto, caso, coisa, negócio
• Russian: де́ло
• Spanish: asunto

• German: Scharmützel
• Russian: боестолкнове́ние

• German: Ding
• Portuguese: negócio
• Russian: штуко́вина
• Spanish: asunto

• French: aventure, liaison
• German: Beziehung, Affäre, Liebesaffäre, Verhältnis, Liebesverhältnis, Liebelei, Liaison, Liebschaft, Liebesangelegenheit, Liebesbeziehung, Liebesabenteuer, Gspusi (mainly Austrian, S. German, coll.)
• Portuguese: caso
• Russian: рома́н
• Spanish: asunto, rollo, amorío, aventura, devaneo, escarceo amoroso, lío de faldas

• Russian: причинда́лы
• Spanish: partes