Diamoric: Meaning, Nonbinary Attraction, and Relationships

Those traditional labels often compare one person’s gender with another person’s gender. This comparison can become unclear when someone is neither exclusively a man nor exclusively a woman.

For example, a nonbinary person may:

• feel attracted to women without describing that attraction as straight or gay;
• feel attracted to men in a distinctly nonbinary way;
• experience attraction toward other nonbinary people;
• be attracted to several genders while emphasizing their nonbinary perspective;
• use diamoric alongside another orientation label;
• describe a partnership involving them as a diamoric relationship.

Not every nonbinary person identifies as diamoric. It is an optional label for people who find it meaningful.

• She describes her orientation as diamoric.
• They are a diamoric person attracted to women.
• The couple considers theirs a diamoric relationship.
• His diamoric identity influences how he describes attraction.

It can also appear after linking verbs:

• I am diamoric.
• Their attraction feels diamoric.
• The relationship is diamoric, not easily described as straight or gay.

Common expressions include:

• identify as diamoric;
• experience diamoric attraction;
• use a diamoric orientation label;
• form a diamoric relationship;
• describe attraction from a diamoric perspective;
• combine diamoric with another identity.

The word is pronounced with the main stress on mor: dye-uh-MOR-ik.

A Nonbinary Experience of Attraction

A nonbinary person may feel that their attraction cannot be classified through a simple same-gender-versus-different-gender system. Their relationship to gender may make words such as heterosexual or homosexual feel incomplete, inaccurate, or overly binary.

An Umbrella for More Specific Orientations

Diamoric can function as an umbrella for orientation terms developed to describe attraction experienced by nonbinary people. These may specify whether someone is attracted to women, men, nonbinary people, or multiple genders.

A Relationship Descriptor

A relationship involving a nonbinary person may be called diamoric when the participants do not consider it accurately described as straight or gay. This use describes the relationship rather than assigning an orientation to every person involved.

An Additional Identity

Some people use diamoric by itself. Others combine it with another label:

• diamoric bisexual;
• diamoric pansexual;
• diamoric lesbian;
• diamoric gay person;
• diamoric asexual;
• diamoric queer person.

The combination may communicate both the general direction of attraction and the person’s specifically nonbinary experience.

Examples include:

• Trixic: a nonbinary person attracted to women, exclusively or non-exclusively, depending on personal usage;
• Toric: a nonbinary person attracted to men, exclusively or non-exclusively;
• Enbian: a nonbinary person attracted to other nonbinary people;
• Feminamoric: a nonbinary person exclusively attracted to women;
• Viramoric: a nonbinary person exclusively attracted to men.

Terminology varies among communities, and people may define these labels somewhat differently. A person should be described using the words they choose for themselves.

Diamoric attraction usually refers to attraction experienced by a nonbinary person in a way shaped by their own nonbinary gender.

Therefore, a binary man or woman attracted to a nonbinary person is not automatically diamoric in personal orientation. However, the relationship itself may be described as diamoric if that description feels appropriate to the people involved.

Similarly, a diamoric person does not have to be attracted to nonbinary people. They may be attracted only to men, only to women, or to another combination of genders.

Achillean broadly describes men and some nonbinary people whose attraction to men is important to their identity.

Diamoric was developed as a related concept centered more broadly on nonbinary experiences of attraction. Unlike sapphic and achillean, diamoric does not indicate attraction toward a particular gender.

A nonbinary person may identify as:

• both diamoric and sapphic;
• both diamoric and achillean;
• diamoric without either label;
• another orientation entirely.

These identities may overlap, but they are not interchangeable.

Such a relationship may involve:

• two nonbinary partners;
• a nonbinary person and a woman;
• a nonbinary person and a man;
• several partners of different genders;
• romantic, sexual, queerplatonic, or otherwise committed partners.

Calling a relationship diamoric does not reveal whether it is monogamous, non-monogamous, sexual, romantic, casual, or lifelong. The term describes its relationship to gender categories, not its complete structure.

People in the relationship should decide whether the label fits. An outside observer should not automatically assign it merely because one person appears gender-nonconforming.

However, being nonbinary does not automatically make someone diamoric. Some nonbinary people comfortably use labels such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, straight, queer, or asexual without adding diamoric.

A binary person generally would not call their personal orientation diamoric solely because they are attracted to a nonbinary person. They may participate in a diamoric relationship, but their own orientation remains theirs to describe.

• diamoric romantic attraction;
• diamoric sexual attraction;
• diamoric queerplatonic attraction;
• diamoric alterous attraction;
• diamoric emotional attraction.

Someone may also use separate romantic and sexual labels. For example, a person could be diamoric and asexual while experiencing romantic attraction, or diamoric and aromantic while experiencing sexual attraction.

The label alone does not indicate whether someone desires dating, sex, marriage, or any particular kind of partnership.

Every nonbinary person is diamoric.
No. It is a self-selected identity, not an automatic category.

Diamoric is another word for bisexual or pansexual.
No. Bisexual and pansexual describe attraction across genders, while diamoric emphasizes a nonbinary experience of attraction.

Only two nonbinary people can have a diamoric relationship.
No. A diamoric relationship may involve one or more nonbinary participants.

Diamoric means the same as queer.
No. Queer is much broader, although someone may use both labels.

A diamoric relationship must be romantic or sexual.
No. The term may also be applied to queerplatonic or otherwise personally defined partnerships.

1. Alex identifies as diamoric because binary orientation labels do not fit their experience.
2. A diamoric person may be attracted to people of any gender.
3. Being diamoric does not necessarily mean being attracted only to nonbinary people.
4. The partners describe theirs as a diamoric relationship rather than a straight relationship.
5. A nonbinary person may use diamoric alongside bisexual, lesbian, gay, or asexual.
6. The glossary explains that diamoric centers the nonbinary person’s experience of attraction.
7. Not every nonbinary individual chooses the diamoric label.
8. Understanding diamoric helped Sam describe an orientation that did not fit same-gender or different-gender categories.

The term also separates the person experiencing attraction from the gender toward which the attraction is directed. A diamoric person may have any pattern of romantic or sexual attraction, while their nonbinary identity remains central to how that attraction is understood.

Understanding diamoric identities broadens discussions of sexual orientation and relationships. It allows nonbinary people to describe attraction without forcing themselves or their partnerships into categories created primarily for men and women.