Legal Definitions - affinity

Affinity is a word that can mean a few different things:

1. A close agreement between things or people.
2. The relationship that one spouse has to the blood relatives of the other spouse; this is called direct affinity.
3. Any familial relation resulting from a marriage; this is called secondary affinity.

For example, if a woman is married to a man, her brother is related to her husband by direct affinity. If the woman's sister marries the man's brother, then the woman and her sister are related to each other by secondary affinity.

It's important to note that there is no affinity between the blood relatives of one spouse and the blood relatives of the other. For example, there is no affinity between the husband's brother and the wife's sister.