Secondary Partner: Meaning, Priority, and Hierarchy in Polyamory
A secondary partner has less structural priority than a primary partner but may still share a loving, sexual, emotionally significant, and long-term relationship.
Primary Partner: Priority, Commitment, and Hierarchy in Polyamory
A primary partner is the partner who receives the greatest structural, practical, or emotional priority within a relationship network.
Nesting Partner: Shared Housing, Domestic Life, and Polyamory
A nesting partner is a romantic, sexual, or committed partner with whom a person shares a home, household responsibilities, or daily domestic life.
Anchor Partner: Emotional Stability and Commitment in Polyamory
An anchor partner is a dependable partner who provides emotional stability, continuity, or practical support without necessarily holding formal primary status.
Relationship Escalator: The Expected Path From Dating to Marriage
The relationship escalator is the social expectation that romantic relationships should progress through exclusivity, cohabitation, marriage, parenthood, and lifelong commitment.
Relationship Agreement: Expectations, Boundaries, and Shared Commitments
A relationship agreement is a shared understanding about expectations, boundaries, responsibilities, privacy, sexuality, and acceptable behavior within a relationship.
New Relationship Energy: Early Romance, Attraction, and Emotional Intensity
New relationship energy is the intense excitement, attraction, optimism, and emotional focus that may occur during the early stage of a romantic or sexual relationship.
Compersion: Joy in a Partner’s Other Romantic or Sexual Connection
Compersion is a positive feeling about a partner’s happiness, affection, love, or sexual pleasure with another person, especially in polyamorous relationships.
Metamour: Your Partner’s Other Partner in Polyamory
A metamour is the romantic or sexual partner of one’s own partner but not necessarily one’s direct partner within a consensually non-monogamous relationship.
Polyfidelity: Closed Polyamory, Group Exclusivity, and Commitment
Polyfidelity is a form of consensual non-monogamy in which a defined group maintains romantic or sexual exclusivity within the group.