Relationship Terms

Compersion is happiness or pleasure felt in response to another person’s happiness, especially a partner’s positive romantic or sexual experience with another partner.

Consensual non-monogamy is an umbrella term for relationship agreements in which all partners consent to romantic, intimate, and/or sexual relationships involving more than one person.

Cuckold is a relationship term used to describe a structure, dynamic, feeling, or pattern between people. Its practical meaning can depend on the agreements and language used by the people involved.

A metamour is your partner’s other partner when you are not yourself romantically involved with that person.

Monogamy is a relationship structure based on romantic and/or sexual exclusivity between partners according to their agreements.

New relationship energy, or NRE, describes the heightened excitement and emotional or sexual intensity that can occur near the beginning of a new relationship.

An open relationship is a consensually non-monogamous relationship in which partners agree that one or both may have sexual or romantic connections with other people.

Polyamory is a form of consensual non-monogamy involving multiple romantic and/or intimate relationships with the knowledge and consent of the people involved.

A polycule is a network or group of people connected through polyamorous relationships, even when every member is not romantically or sexually involved with every other member.

Relationship anarchy is an approach to relationships that rejects predetermined hierarchies and rules in favor of agreements created by the people involved.

Solo polyamory is a form of polyamory in which a person has multiple intimate relationships while maintaining an independent lifestyle rather than combining households or finances with partners.