- August 8, 2026
- 11:00 am
The conversation has been going on for eight months.
They text each other every day.
They have watched three TV series together, visited two exhibitions, and shared at least one sunset that social media would have described as magical.
She knows his dog.
He knows about her lactose intolerance.
At Christmas, they exchanged gifts.
At Easter, they did it again, even though there was no need.
Yet whenever someone asks if they’re together, they look at each other like two diplomats facing an international crisis.
“We’re not putting labels on things.”
It’s called a situationship.
A very modern word to describe a rather old situation: two people who are together without saying they’re together.
The word situationship isn’t new. It has existed in the English-speaking world for years, but only recently has it stopped being slang and become a category of its own. Today, it is used to describe relationships that look like a couple without actually declaring themselves one. A definition vague enough to feel perfectly contemporary.
The difference is that, once upon a time, people simply didn’t know.
Today, they organize it.
A situationship allows people to enjoy almost all the benefits of a relationship while carefully avoiding the word relationship.
They go out.
They sleep together.
They talk every day.
They get upset if the other person doesn’t reply.
They spend Saturday evenings together.
Sometimes even Sundays.
But with no commitments.
Or at least, that’s what they say.
In reality, a situationship is something left unspoken—except that everyone knows it, as long as nobody actually says it out loud.
Traditional couples used to argue over jealousy.
In a situationship, people argue because one of them dared to ask:
“So… what exactly are we?”
A question considered aggressive and, above all, inappropriate.
That’s when a very specific vocabulary appears.
“We’re happy like this.”
“Why do we have to define everything?”
“Things should happen naturally.”
A situationship is, in practice, a trial version of a relationship, and it belongs on the same list as flexible contracts, monthly subscriptions, and free cancellation policies.
Yet none of the people involved ever seems particularly happy to be in one.
And still, they keep multiplying.
As long as nobody asks for an explanation, the contract renews itself automatically.