Basic Terms

Everyday terms used in the aromantic community

This glossary is a continuously updating record of terms that have been and are being used in the aromantic community. As a record, this glossary is meant to document the various concepts that are thought up when the language is not sufficient to describe people’s experiences and doesn’t encourage or discourage the use of any term.

Please keep in mind these are shortened definitions and identities can be nuanced. These terms were last updated in Oct. 2021.

Identity Terms | Attraction and Relationship Terms | Uncommon and Newly Emerging Terms

All Terms

A label describing the usual patterns of a person’s romantic attraction or the lack of it.  

Aromantic (aro)

1. Commonly describes someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction, abbreviated to aro.

   It also describes someone whose experience of romance is disconnected from normative societal expectations, due to feeling repulsed by romance, or being uninterested in romantic relationships.

2. Commonly used as a specific identity term by people who experience no romantic attraction.

Flag

See also: FAQ

1. An umbrella term for all aromantic orientations, which emphasizes the diversity from no romantic attraction to nonnormative romantic attraction or experience with romance, abbreviated to arospec.

2. Arospec is also used as a specific identity term describing someone who experiences conditional, unreliable or otherwise nonnormative romantic attraction, but doesn’t label it further.

Aromanticism

Noun form of aromantic.

Describes a person who experiences romantic attraction or is not on the aromantic spectrum.

Popularized by: Queenie (original, archived)

Describes a person who experiences sexual attraction or is not on the asexual spectrum.

Coined by: Hezekiah (original, archived)

Commonly describes someone who experiences little to no sexual attraction, abbreviated to ace.

It also describes people whose experiences with sex are disconnected from normative societal expectations, due to feeling repulsed by or uninterested in sex.

Another common umbrella term for asexuals is asexual spectrum (acespec), analogous to aromantic spectrum but for sexual attraction.

Allo aro (aro allo)

An abbreviation of allosexual aromantic, a term people who are allosexual and aromantic use to describe themselves.

Flag (original, archived)

An abbreviation of aromantic asexual, a term by which people who are aromantic and asexual describe themselves.

Flag variations (original, archived)

1. An umbrella term for orientations based on conditional and no romantic and/or sexual attraction, that is aromantic and asexual spectra, abbreviated to a-spec. There are differing opinions about whether other identities or orientations also fall under the a-spec umbrella.

2. A-spec is also used as a specific identity describing someone who doesn’t differentiate their experiences of conditional or no attraction into types.

Coined by: Whes and Strategicgoat and Warriorsdebt (original, archived)

        Flag variations (original, archived)

The widespread assumption that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship.

Coined by: Philosopher and professor Elizabeth Brake (original, archived)

Aromisia / Arophobia

The dislike of or prejudice against aromantic people. Aromisia is an alternative term to arophobia, which has been criticized as being ableist for its conflation with a diagnosable phobia or fear.

Non-SAM aro

Describes an aromantic person who does not use the Split Attraction Model (SAM) to characterize their orientation. Non-SAM aros do not identify with an allosexual or asexual spectrum orientation, regardless of whether or not they experience sexual attraction.

There are also other terms that people use as synonyms for non-SAM aro, and there is ongoing discussion about which ones might be preferred by the community. 

A similar term that is not defined in relation to the SAM is Unit aro.

A committed non-romantic relationship that departs from what is the subjective cultural norm for a friendship. Levels of intimacy and/or behaviors between the partners involved often don’t fit the conventional standards set by society. Some QPRs can include sex and elements that are generally considered romantic. In practice every queerplatonic relationship is different. Abbreviated to QPR, and queerplatonic (quasiplatonic) partner to QPP. Another common word for QPP used to be zucchini.

Coined by: Meloukhia and Kaz (original, archived)

History of the word (original, archived)

Some aromantics use the SAM to make a distinction between experiences of attraction depending on certain characteristics, conceptualizing them as different types of attraction. A person who uses the SAM to describe themselves may experience different types of attraction as distinctive and decide to label the attractions separately. It’s not a model that works to describe everyone’s experiences, and there are some disagreements about its history.