situationship

From situation +‎ -ship or a blend of situational +‎ relationship.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪt͡ʃuˈeɪʃənʃɪp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪtʃuˈeɪʃənʃɪp/

situationship (plural situationships)

1. (neologism, informal) A romantic or sexual relationship in which the parties involved do not clearly define their relationship as such, but for example consider it "complicated" or a friends with benefits-type situation.
   • 2014, Marcia Newman, Five Gifts of Pro-Aging, Balboa Press, →ISBN, page 47:

     Codependents don't have relationships, they have situationships.

   • 2016, Lerato Tshabalala, The Way I See It: The Musings of a Black Woman in the Rainbow Nation, page 110:

     The thing about being in a situationship – and this is a big thing – is that because you exist in that no-man's-land, the rules of engagement are not spelt out.

   • 2017, Jamila Jasper, The Situationship: BWWM Romance Novel, Publisher s23991 (→ISBN):

     “Might you be pregnant?” I scoffed. “Listen Miss James, I know that you know that my personal life is a mess. There's no way I could be pregnant.” “Mark?” “What about Mark?” “Look, I know you're in a situationship with him...” I sighed, “Listen, Mark and I are friends. And anything that happens between us is very well secured against this.” Dawn shrugged, “Accidents happen.” “Not to me they don't,” I retorted.

   • 2017, Kamaria G. Powell, WHAT THE F#@K IS ENLIGHTENMENT?, →ISBN, page 41:

     We just knew we wanted to be together. There was no one who could make me laugh quite the way Royal Blue did. We had so many good times together and he treated me like a queen whenever he could. Our relationship was built on love, trust and commitment, values that had been absent from many of my past relationships. In my situationships of the past, I had always found myself giving more than the other person.

   • 2021 January 10, Valeriya Safronova, “True Stories of Hooking Up During Covid-19”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     “I needed a ‘situationship,’” said Ms. Stevenson, a 31-year-old comedian and writer in Los Angeles. “A person I can rely on and trust to hang out with once a week.”

   • 2022 September 2, Casey Noenickx, “‘Situationships’: Why Gen Z are embracing the grey area”, in BBC Worklife‎:

     This shift has given rise to the idea of the ‘situationship’ – a term that describes the grey area between friendship and a relationship. ... A situationship gives name to a hard-to-define stage of dating that experts say has skyrocketed in popularity among Gen Z.