the language of how we love.

An anchor partner is a person who provides stability and grounding in a polyamorous person's life, often but not always through a long-term committed relationship, shared living arrangements, or daily proximity.

Chosen family refers to a network of people who function as family through mutual care, commitment, and chosen affiliation rather than through biological relation or legal bond.

A comet is a partner or connection who moves in and out of your life in long, irregular cycles, appearing for an intense period and then departing, sometimes for months or years, before returning.

Compersion is the feeling of joy or happiness that arises when someone you love experiences connection, happiness, or love with another person.

DADT, or "don't ask, don't tell," refers to a relationship arrangement in which one or both partners are free to pursue outside connections but agree not to share information about those connections with each other.

Enmeshment is a relational pattern in which the boundaries between individuals in a relationship become diffuse or unclear, resulting in an excessive degree of emotional interdependence.

The relationship escalator refers to the social script that defines a "successful" romantic relationship as one that follows a predictable progression: dating, exclusivity, cohabitation, long-term commitment, and often marriage or children.

Ethical non-monogamy (ENM) is an umbrella term for relationship structures in which partners explicitly agree to engage in romantic or sexual connections with more than one person.

Garden party polyamory describes a relationship style that sits between kitchen table and parallel polyamory.

A hinge partner is a person who is romantically involved with two or more partners who are not involved with each other, occupying the connecting position in a vee-shaped relational configuration.

Kitchen table polyamory describes a relationship style in which members of a polycule know each other well, spend time together socially, and interact with the comfort and ease of people who might sit around a kitchen table together.

Limerence is an involuntary state of intense romantic obsession characterized by intrusive thoughts about another person, a strong desire for reciprocation, and sharp emotional swings tied to perceived signals about the other person's feelings.

A metamour is the partner of your partner, with whom you are not in a romantic or sexual relationship yourself.

New relationship energy, commonly abbreviated as NRE, is the heightened state of excitement, intensity, and emotional activation that often accompanies the early stages of a new romantic or sexual connection.

A nesting partner is a romantic partner with whom you share a home.

Non-hierarchical polyamory is an approach to plural relationships in which no partner is designated as primary, secondary, or otherwise ranked above or below others.

Parallel polyamory describes a relationship style in which a person maintains multiple romantic relationships that exist largely independently of each other.

Polyamory is the practice of having multiple romantic or loving relationships simultaneously, with the knowledge and consent of all people involved.

Polyandry is the practice or institution of one woman having multiple husbands simultaneously.

A polycule is the network of people connected through polyamorous relationships, including partners, partners' partners, and the connections between them.

Polyfidelity is a form of plural relationship in which a closed group of partners are all romantically and often sexually involved with each other and agree not to pursue connections outside the group.

Polygyny is the practice or institution of one man having multiple wives simultaneously.

Relationship anarchy is a relational philosophy and practice that rejects the idea that relationships should be organized by hierarchy, category, or social scripts.

Solo polyamory is an orientation and practice in which someone maintains multiple loving relationships while intentionally keeping their own life as the primary structure.

Unicorn hunting refers to the practice of an established couple seeking a bisexual or pansexual woman to join their relationship as a third partner who is equally romantically or sexually involved with both members of the couple.

A vee is a three-person relational configuration in which one person, called the hinge, is romantically connected to two other people who are not connected to each other.