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Description: This word-association study aimed to examine the contribution of affective content to the organization of words in the speakers’ lexicon. Based on existing free association norms and on a series of questionnaires we developed, we examined the characteristics of the words produced as associates to 840 Spanish cue words. Half of them were affective cue words and the other half were neutral (non-affective) cue words. Among the affective cue words, some words directly labeled an emotion (emotion words, EM) and others did not label an emotion, but could elicit it (emotion-laden words, EL). The words produced as associates were also classified according to this distinction. Furthermore, we examined the relationship between the lexico-semantic and affective properties of the cue words and the associated words. The results revealed that EM, EL and neutral associated words were elicited to a greater extent by cue words of the same type than by other types of cue words. Furthermore, the degree of correspondence between the affective properties (in terms of valence and arousal) of the cues and their associates was higher than that of lexico-semantic variables. These results evidence the relevant role of affective properties in the organization of words in the lexicon. (see supplementary materials under the Files section)