In an article in Time magazine, we read "Somewhere between great love and no strings attached lies a category of relationship where […] the labels 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' don't really apply, but it's way beyond a casual hookup. It includes going on dates, having sex, and building intimacy without a clear objective in mind. Enter 'situationship.'"1
Τhis term, a blend of "situation" and "relationship," was introduced in 2017 by Carina Hsieh, a sex and relationship editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. She described situationship as "a hookup with emotional benefits."2 In fact, it is the emotional aspect (however slight) which differentiates it from a no strings attached hookup.3
The term situationship has now even made it into the Cambridge Dictionary, which gives us the definition: "a romantic relationship between two people who do not consider themselves a couple but who have more than a friendship."4 The whole thing resembles what we have called until now a "no strings attached" relationship or "friends with benefits." Indeed, a situationship is experienced mainly in the present and doesn't involve long-term future plans. However, the big difference lies in the fact that partners in a situationship are very reluctant to say what this relation is about or where it is heading, that is, to put a label on it.
So, what seems to be central to a situationship is the question of naming, or more precisely, of not naming. When we ask those subjects who are involved in a situationship whether they have a relationship or not, the answer they usually give is that "we are doing something" or "we are into something" not "hanging out" but doing… something, with this something moving in a twilight zone between being and not being in a relationship by not having a name or a clear orientation.
Some subjects report that in a situationship you have a good time without unnecessary fights and grumbling that exclusivity usually brings, while others say that you get the positives of the relationship, but you also get the joy of freedom of "whenever I want to leave" without the drama. Yet, the drama ensues when one of the two parties asks to change the status of the situationship to a more committed one. As one woman reports, "As long as we didn't have labels things were going so well, when we said we're a couple, it all fell apart."
Situationhip is a phenomenon that is gaining a lot of ground in Greece as a way for subjects to get along with the non-sexual relationship.
[1] M. Battle, "Situationships Are the Future of Dating. That's Not a Bad Thing," Time, 18 March 2023, available online: Time.com.
[2] Ibid.
[3] K. Kibbe, "Apparently, We Were All in the Same Life-Altering Three-Month Situationship," Cosmopolitan, 18 November 2025, available online: Cosmopolitan.com.
[4] Cambridge Dictionary, "Situationship," Cambridge Dictionary, available online: dictionary.cambridge.org.
