"true love" meaning in English

See true love in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: true loves [plural]
Etymology: From Middle English trewe love, from Old English trēow-lufu. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|trewe love}} Middle English trewe love, {{inh|en|ang|trēow-lufu}} Old English trēow-lufu Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} true love (countable and uncountable, plural true loves)
  1. (originally) Faithful love.
    (uncountable) Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings.
    Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Love
    Sense id: en-true_love-en-noun-mxgGsHYi Disambiguation of Love: 18 11 22 22 22 6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Swahili translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 27 5 19 19 19 10 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 35 7 20 15 15 9 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 37 6 17 17 17 6 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 33 3 20 20 20 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 33 10 19 15 15 9 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 38 7 18 14 14 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 33 6 19 16 17 8 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 22 9 17 15 12 24 Disambiguation of Terms with Swahili translations: 31 5 19 19 19 7
  2. (originally) Faithful love.
    (countable) A lover who is faithful to the object of his or her affection or faithfully loved themselves.
    Tags: countable Categories (topical): Love
    Sense id: en-true_love-en-noun-ik6mq660 Disambiguation of Love: 18 11 22 22 22 6
  3. (by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.
    (uncountable) The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex.
    Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Love Translations (romantic affection): 真愛 (Chinese Mandarin), 真爱 (zhēn'ài) (Chinese Mandarin), todellinen rakkaus (Finnish), wahre Liebe [feminine] (German), amor de verdade [masculine] (Portuguese), amor verdadeiro [masculine] (Portuguese), verdadeiro amor [masculine] (Portuguese), mapenzi ya dhati (Swahili)
    Sense id: en-true_love-en-noun-Az3z-Ja5 Disambiguation of Love: 18 11 22 22 22 6 Categories (other): Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 22 9 17 15 12 24 Disambiguation of 'romantic affection': 5 13 47 18 10 7
  4. (by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.
    (countable) The unique individual for whom one feels such affection.
    Tags: countable Categories (topical): Love, People Translations (individual): 真愛 (Chinese Mandarin), 真爱 (zhēn'ài) (Chinese Mandarin), todellinen rakkaus (Finnish), amor de verdade [masculine] (Portuguese), amor verdadeiro [masculine] (Portuguese), verdadeiro amor [masculine] (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-true_love-en-noun-mq5du0WF Disambiguation of Love: 18 11 22 22 22 6 Disambiguation of People: 15 24 14 30 8 8 Categories (other): Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 22 9 17 15 12 24 Disambiguation of 'individual': 5 7 5 65 5 13
  5. (by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.
    (uncountable) The situation in which a couple is perfectly compatible and there is no better relationship, as set by a greater force such as God or fate.
    Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Love
    Sense id: en-true_love-en-noun-EaLse1X3 Disambiguation of Love: 18 11 22 22 22 6 Categories (other): Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 22 9 17 15 12 24
  6. (countable) A thing for which a person feels an intense love. Tags: countable Translations (thing): 真愛 (Chinese Mandarin), 真爱 (zhēn'ài) (Chinese Mandarin), todellinen rakkaus (Finnish), amor de verdade [masculine] (Portuguese), amor verdadeiro [masculine] (Portuguese), verdadeiro amor [masculine] (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-true_love-en-noun-9I1w3zSd Categories (other): Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 22 9 17 15 12 24 Disambiguation of 'thing': 0 0 0 0 0 100
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: the course of true love never did run smooth, true-love-knot

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "18 18 19 19 19 8",
      "word": "the course of true love never did run smooth"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "18 18 19 19 19 8",
      "word": "true-love-knot"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "ref": "1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour's loſt, act I, scene ii",
          "text": "I shall be forsworn, which is a great argument of falsehood, if I love. And how can that be true love which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love, […]"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1875, Sidney Lanier, “The Symphony”",
          "text": "When all’s done, what hast thou won\nOf the only sweet that’s under the sun?\nAy, canst thou buy a single sigh\nOf true love’s least, least ecstasy?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, Evelyn Mullay, The Artist at Work: Narrative Technique in Chrétien de Troyes, page 88:",
          "text": "For both Thomas and Chrétien true love is identified with the ability to be true to one’s commitment, and Fenice is justifiably confident of her ability to be constant.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "Faithful love.",
        "Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings."
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      "id": "en-true_love-en-noun-mxgGsHYi",
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        [
          "adhere",
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        "(originally) Faithful love.",
        "(uncountable) Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings."
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          "ref": "1765, “Waly Waly, Love Be Bonny”, as quoted in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets (1905), Thomas Percy (editor)",
          "text": "I leant my back unto an aik,\nI thought it was a trusty tree;\nBut first it bow’d, and fyne it brak,\nSae my true love did lightly me."
        },
        {
          "ref": "c. 1780, unknown author, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, in Mirth Without Mischief:",
          "text": "The first day of Christmas\nMy true love sent to me\nA partridge in a pear tree.",
          "type": "quote"
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        "(originally) Faithful love.",
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        {
          "text": "Some believe that true love doesn’t exist.",
          "type": "example"
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        {
          "ref": "1847, Friedrich von Schlegel, translated by A. J. W. Morrison, The Philosophy of Life, and Philosophy of Language: In a Course of Lectures, page 38:",
          "text": "And as all true love is reciprocal, so also is true love lasting and indestructible; or, to “speak as a man,” even because it is the very inmost life of humanity, it is, therefore, true unto death.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 January 26, Linda Morris, “Pope dedicates message to meaning of true love”, in The Age, Melbourne:",
          "text": "The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics has tried to answer the age-old question of philosophers, playwrights and poets — the meaning of love — and concluded that erotic desire without self-sacrifice and spiritual devotion cannot be true love.",
          "type": "quote"
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        "(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
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      ],
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          "_dis1": "5 13 47 18 10 7",
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          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
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          "word": "真愛"
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          "code": "cmn",
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          "sense": "romantic affection",
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          "code": "pt",
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          "code": "sw",
          "lang": "Swahili",
          "sense": "romantic affection",
          "word": "mapenzi ya dhati"
        }
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        {
          "text": "He was my one true love.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, “Colours”, performed by Donovan:",
          "text": "Yellow is the colour of my true love’s hair\nIn the morning when we rise.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "The unique individual for whom one feels such affection."
      ],
      "id": "en-true_love-en-noun-mq5du0WF",
      "qualifier": "by later reinterpretation",
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        "(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "(countable) The unique individual for whom one feels such affection."
      ],
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "5 7 5 65 5 13",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "individual",
          "word": "真愛"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "5 7 5 65 5 13",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zhēn'ài",
          "sense": "individual",
          "word": "真爱"
        },
        {
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          "code": "fi",
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          "sense": "individual",
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "5 7 5 65 5 13",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "individual",
          "tags": [
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        },
        {
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          "sense": "individual",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "amor verdadeiro"
        },
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        "(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "(uncountable) The situation in which a couple is perfectly compatible and there is no better relationship, as set by a greater force such as God or fate."
      ],
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        {
          "text": "Cinematography is my only true love.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
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        "A thing for which a person feels an intense love."
      ],
      "id": "en-true_love-en-noun-9I1w3zSd",
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        "(countable) A thing for which a person feels an intense love."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 100",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "thing",
          "word": "真愛"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 100",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zhēn'ài",
          "sense": "thing",
          "word": "真爱"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 100",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "thing",
          "word": "todellinen rakkaus"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 100",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "thing",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "amor de verdade"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 100",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "thing",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "amor verdadeiro"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 100",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "thing",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "verdadeiro amor"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "true love"
}
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    "Terms with Mandarin translations",
    "Terms with Portuguese translations",
    "Terms with Swahili translations",
    "en:Love",
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  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "the course of true love never did run smooth"
    },
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          "ref": "1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour's loſt, act I, scene ii",
          "text": "I shall be forsworn, which is a great argument of falsehood, if I love. And how can that be true love which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love, […]"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1875, Sidney Lanier, “The Symphony”",
          "text": "When all’s done, what hast thou won\nOf the only sweet that’s under the sun?\nAy, canst thou buy a single sigh\nOf true love’s least, least ecstasy?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, Evelyn Mullay, The Artist at Work: Narrative Technique in Chrétien de Troyes, page 88:",
          "text": "For both Thomas and Chrétien true love is identified with the ability to be true to one’s commitment, and Fenice is justifiably confident of her ability to be constant.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Faithful love.",
        "Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Faithful",
          "faithful"
        ],
        [
          "love",
          "love"
        ],
        [
          "Feelings",
          "feeling"
        ],
        [
          "adhere",
          "adhere"
        ],
        [
          "faithfully",
          "faithfully"
        ],
        [
          "manifestation",
          "manifestation"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "originally",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally) Faithful love.",
        "(uncountable) Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1765, “Waly Waly, Love Be Bonny”, as quoted in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets (1905), Thomas Percy (editor)",
          "text": "I leant my back unto an aik,\nI thought it was a trusty tree;\nBut first it bow’d, and fyne it brak,\nSae my true love did lightly me."
        },
        {
          "ref": "c. 1780, unknown author, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, in Mirth Without Mischief:",
          "text": "The first day of Christmas\nMy true love sent to me\nA partridge in a pear tree.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Faithful love.",
        "A lover who is faithful to the object of his or her affection or faithfully loved themselves."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Faithful",
          "faithful"
        ],
        [
          "love",
          "love"
        ],
        [
          "lover",
          "lover"
        ],
        [
          "faithful",
          "faithful"
        ],
        [
          "object",
          "object"
        ],
        [
          "affection",
          "affection"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "originally",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally) Faithful love.",
        "(countable) A lover who is faithful to the object of his or her affection or faithfully loved themselves."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Some believe that true love doesn’t exist.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1847, Friedrich von Schlegel, translated by A. J. W. Morrison, The Philosophy of Life, and Philosophy of Language: In a Course of Lectures, page 38:",
          "text": "And as all true love is reciprocal, so also is true love lasting and indestructible; or, to “speak as a man,” even because it is the very inmost life of humanity, it is, therefore, true unto death.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 January 26, Linda Morris, “Pope dedicates message to meaning of true love”, in The Age, Melbourne:",
          "text": "The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics has tried to answer the age-old question of philosophers, playwrights and poets — the meaning of love — and concluded that erotic desire without self-sacrifice and spiritual devotion cannot be true love.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "romantic",
          "romantic"
        ],
        [
          "affection",
          "affection"
        ],
        [
          "pure",
          "pure"
        ],
        [
          "lust",
          "lust"
        ],
        [
          "sex",
          "sex"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "by later reinterpretation",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "(uncountable) The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He was my one true love.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, “Colours”, performed by Donovan:",
          "text": "Yellow is the colour of my true love’s hair\nIn the morning when we rise.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "The unique individual for whom one feels such affection."
      ],
      "qualifier": "by later reinterpretation",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "(countable) The unique individual for whom one feels such affection."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "The situation in which a couple is perfectly compatible and there is no better relationship, as set by a greater force such as God or fate."
      ],
      "qualifier": "by later reinterpretation",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.",
        "(uncountable) The situation in which a couple is perfectly compatible and there is no better relationship, as set by a greater force such as God or fate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Cinematography is my only true love.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A thing for which a person feels an intense love."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(countable) A thing for which a person feels an intense love."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "word": "真愛"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zhēn'ài",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "word": "真爱"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "word": "todellinen rakkaus"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "wahre Liebe"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "amor de verdade"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "amor verdadeiro"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "verdadeiro amor"
    },
    {
      "code": "sw",
      "lang": "Swahili",
      "sense": "romantic affection",
      "word": "mapenzi ya dhati"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "individual",
      "word": "真愛"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zhēn'ài",
      "sense": "individual",
      "word": "真爱"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "individual",
      "word": "todellinen rakkaus"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "individual",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "amor de verdade"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "individual",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "amor verdadeiro"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "individual",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "verdadeiro amor"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "thing",
      "word": "真愛"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zhēn'ài",
      "sense": "thing",
      "word": "真爱"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "thing",
      "word": "todellinen rakkaus"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "thing",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "amor de verdade"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "thing",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "amor verdadeiro"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "thing",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "verdadeiro amor"
    }
  ],
  "word": "true love"
}

Download raw JSONL data for true love meaning in English (9.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.