Upper Intermediate Vocabulary: Relationships

Social and Interpersonal Bonds

• Bond: A relationship based on trust, respect, and friendship. To bond involves developing the ability to live or work together.
• Flatmate: A person who shares a flat with another person.
• Good mate: An informal term for a close friend.
• Passing acquaintance: A person you know slightly but not well, perhaps having met only once or twice.

Family and Commitment

• Brother-in-law: The brother of one's spouse; broadly, relatives of a spouse are referred to as in-laws.
• Fiancée / Fiancé: A woman (fiancée) or man (fiancé) whom someone is engaged to marry.

Shared Qualities and Characteristics

• Faithful: Being very loyal and supportive toward another person.
• Mutual: Describes feelings, respect, or understanding that are shared equally between two people.
• Odd: Used to describe items that do not match or an odd couple, which consists of two people in a relationship who seem very different from each other.

General Associations and Terms

• Associate: To identify a link or commonality between two things, often where one is the cause of the other.
• Stuff: A general, informal word used to refer to any kind of thing or collection of objects.