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romance noun
1 a love affair.
2 sentimentalized or idealized love, valued especially for its beauty, purity and the mutual devotion of the lovers.
3 the atmosphere, feelings or behaviour associated with romantic love.
4 a sentimental account, especially in writing or on film, of a love affair.
5 such writing, films, etc as a group or genre.
6 a fictitious story which deals with imaginary, adventurous and mysterious events, characters, places, etc.
7 a medieval verse narrative dealing with chivalry, highly idealized love and fantastic adventures.
8 an exaggeration or absurd account or lie.
9 (Romance) the group of languages, including French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, which have developed from Latin.
10 music a short, informal, ballad-like piece. adj (Romance) belonging or relating to the languages which have developed from Latin, such as French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian. verb (romanced, romancing) 1 to try to win someone's love. 2 intrans to talk or write extravagantly, romantically or fantastically. 3 intrans to lie. romancer noun. romancing noun, adj.
ETYMOLOGY: 13c: from French romans, from Latin Romanicus Roman.

ro-mance

noun, verb, -manced, -manc -ing, adjective

–noun

1.	a novel or other prose narrative depicting heroic or marvelous deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits, etc., usually in a historical or imaginary setting.

2.	the colorful world, life, or conditions depicted in such tales.

3.	a medieval narrative, originally one in verse and in some Romance dialect, treating of heroic, fantastic, or supernatural events, often in the form of allegory.

4.	a baseless, made-up story, usually full of exaggeration or fanciful invention.

5.	a romantic spirit, sentiment, emotion, or desire.

6.	romantic character or quality.

7.	a romantic affair or experience; a love affair.

8.	(initial capital letter) Also, Romanic. Also called Romance languages. the group of Italic Indo-European languages descended since a.d. 800 from Latin, as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Provençal, Catalan, Rhaeto-Romanic, Sardinian, and Ladino. Abbreviation: Rom.

–verb (used without object)

9.	to invent or relate romances; indulge in fanciful or extravagant stories or daydreams.

10.	to think or talk romantically.

–verb (used with object)

11.

Informal.

a.	to court or woo romantically; treat with ardor or chivalrousness: He's currently romancing a very attractive widow.

b.	to court the favor of or make overtures to; play up to: They need to romance the local business community if they expect to do business here.

–adjective

12.	(initial capital letter) Also, Romanic. of, pertaining to, or noting Romance: a Romance language.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME romaunce Romanic language, composition in such a language < OF, deriv. of romanz, romans (adj.) Romanic < VL *Rōmānicē (adv.) in a Romance language, deriv. of L Rōmānicus Romanic