polycule
Syllables: po·ly·culeUK/ˈpɒ.lɪ.kjuːl//ˈpɑ.li.kjul/
polycule noun: a polyamorous group of individuals connected by their overlapping romantic, sexual, or platonic relationships.
Noun
polycule (plural polycules)
- A polyamorous group of individuals connected by their overlapping romantic, sexual, or platonic relationships.
- Our polycule doubled in size when my spouse started seeing Boris, whose husband has six other partners.
- The five of us started calling ourselves a "polycule" back in the fall of 2012, when our relationships and sexual lives were so thoroughly entangled with one another that we looked like several relationship atoms often sharing orbits together.2015, Julie Fennell, “Polyculous bonds”, in Elisabeth Sheff, editor, Stories from the polycule: Real life in polyamorous families, Portland, OR: Thorntree Press, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- constellation, pod
Examples of polycule in a sentence
- While nonmonogamy doesn't always mean having multiple partners, Ezra's polycule comprises multiple sexual partners.2018 November 16, Josephine Yurcaba, “Ezra Miller Discussed Polyamory and Past Abuse”, in Teen Vogue, archived from the original on 28 May...
- Unbeknownst to him, Janice had, some three weeks prior, broken up with one of her partners from a polycule in Colorado.2018, T. J. Thomson, “The Evolution of Story: How Time and Modality Affect Visual and Verbal Narratives Quarterly”, in Visual...
- Sarah is more reserved, especially when it comes to sharing details about “tender” situations, and she’s also protective of the other members of her polycule.2024 January 16, Allison P. Davis, “What Does a Polycule Actually Look Like?”, in New York Magazine:
Synonyms of polycule
Forms of polycule
| plural | polycules |
|---|
Origin of polycule
Blend of polyamory + molecule. First attested in the 2010s.
Words formed from polycule
Questions about polycule
- What does polycule mean?
- Polycule means a polyamorous group of individuals connected by their overlapping romantic, sexual, or platonic relationships.
- How do you use polycule in a sentence?
- While nonmonogamy doesn't always mean having multiple partners, Ezra's polycule comprises multiple sexual partners.
- What part of speech is polycule?
- Polycule is a noun.
- How do you pronounce polycule?
- Polycule is pronounced /ˈpɒ.lɪ.kjuːl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of polycule?
- The plural of polycule is polycules.
Words near polycule in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: polycule (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-polycule.oga.
Cite this entry: “polycule.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/polycule. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.