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.

BDSM is an acronym that stands for Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism.

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.

A cowboy or cowgirl is someone who enters a relationship with a polyamorous person and then attempts — intentionally or unintentionally — to pull that person away from their other relationships and into an exclusive, monogamous dynamic.

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.

A fetish is an intense erotic focus on a specific object, material, body part, or situation that is not inherently sexual.

Fluid bonding is the intentional decision between sexual partners to stop using barrier methods such as condoms or dental dams for protection against sexually transmitted infections.

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.

Kin, on Tessakin, refers to the people you have chosen as your intimate relational community — the partners, close connections, and chosen family who make up your personal constellation.

A kink is a sexual or erotic interest, practice, or fantasy that falls outside what mainstream culture treats as conventional.

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.

Mono/poly describes a relationship structure in which one partner practices polyamory and the other is monogamous by preference or orientation.

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.

A paramour is a romantic or sexual partner who exists outside of a primary relationship or marriage.

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.

Polysaturated describes a state in which a person has as many active relationships and as much emotional, relational, and time commitment as they can sustain.

A quad is a relationship structure involving four people who are all romantically connected to each other.

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.

A triad is a relationship structure in which three people are all romantically connected to each other.

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.

A veto is a formal power granted to one partner in a hierarchical polyamorous relationship to end or significantly restrict another partner's outside relationship.