Word.ws English Dictionary

non-romance

non-romance noun: something that is not a romance.

Noun

non-romance (plural non-romances)

  1. Something that is not a romance.
    • Despite having enjoyed the itchy, squirm-inducing Paul and Helen non-romance, even I finally started scratching during last week's 'politics, sex and moral dilemmas challenge', in which Dean and Elizabeth gently assisted Helen and Brian as they struggled to articulate their thoughts on subjects...2001 July 29, Kathryn Flett, “Stupidity scuttled Survivor”, in The Observer, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 May 2014
    • The author had, like Bob, become embroiled in a maddening non-romance with a Soho courtesan, Lily Connolly (she had thought it was spelt Conerlly).2004 March 13, Dan Rhodes, “Unhappy hour”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2014

Adjective

non-romance (not comparable)

  1. Not of or pertaining to romance.
    • a non-romance novel
    • The initial going is slow, but if you hang in there with Patricia Gaffney's first non-romance novel, the rewards are bountiful.1999 August 28, Patricia Elam, “The Talking Cure”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

Examples of non-romance in a sentence

  • Finally, it seems like House is going to back off of Cuddy, and while I’m not holding my breath for that to actually happen, I hope that the epic House/Cuddy non-romance takes a back seat for a while.2009 November 23, Carina MacKenzie, “‘House M.D.’: 16 spleens to be thankful for”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles...
  • In the non-romance world, a lot of people refer to romance novels as "bodice-rippers," a term you find offensive and misogynist.2020 September 27, Karen Grigsby Bates, “Romance Meets The Real World In 'Real Men Knit'”, in CNN, Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery...

Forms of non-romance

pluralnon-romances
alternative formnonromance

Origin of non-romance

From non- + romance.

Questions about non-romance

What does non-romance mean?
Non-romance means something that is not a romance.
How do you use non-romance in a sentence?
Finally, it seems like House is going to back off of Cuddy, and while I’m not holding my breath for that to actually happen, I hope that the epic House/Cuddy non-romance takes a back seat for a while.
What part of speech is non-romance?
Non-romance can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of non-romance?
The plural of non-romance is non-romances.

Words near non-romance in the dictionary

  1. non-rhoticity
  2. non-rigid
  3. non-rivalries
  4. non-rivalry
  5. non-Roman
  6. non-romance
  7. non-romances
  8. non-romantic
  9. non-romantically
  10. non-romantics
  11. non-rotating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: non-romance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “non-romance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/non-romance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.