Word.ws English Dictionary

relationshopping

Syllables: re·lat·ion·shop·ping/ɹɪˈleɪʃn̩ˌʃɒpɪŋ//ɹəˈleɪʃənˌʃɑpɪŋ/

relationshopping noun: the practice of seeking romantic or sexual partners based on a shortlist of attributes, like a consumer shopping for a product.

relationshopping: the practice of seeking romantic or sexual partners based on a shortlist of attributes, like a...
Image: Nous deux, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

relationshopping (uncountable)

  1. (informal) The practice of seeking romantic or sexual partners based on a shortlist of attributes, like a consumer shopping for a product.
    • Relationshopping—ready to settle down, feeling a strange urge to browse in Volvo showrooms? That means you're looking to move beyond relationsurfing to relationshopping.2001, Faith Popcorn, Adam Hanft, “New Behaviors”, in Dictionary of the Future: The Words, Terms and Trends that Define the Way We’ll Live, Work and Talk, New York, N.Y.: Hyperion, →ISBN, page 298
    • Some experts believe that an overpowering fear of commitment may be the driving force behind relationshopping, but that is not likely the case. The fear of commitment is largely determined by past experiences, while relationshopping is based on the future or pure fantasy. Relationshopping is a form...2010, Sean Kenniff, “Your *Effing Love Life”, in Stop *Effing Yourself: A Survivor’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Screw-ups, Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communications, →ISBN, page 117

Examples of relationshopping in a sentence

  • Some experts believe that an overpowering fear of commitment may be the driving force behind relationshopping, but that is not likely the case.2010, Sean Kenniff, “Your *Effing Love Life”, in Stop *Effing Yourself: A Survivor’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Screw-ups, Deerfield Beach...
  • "Relationshopping" is detrimental to users' romantic relationship goals for two reasons.2018, Doug Zytko, Sukeshini Grandhi, Quentin Jones, “The (Un)Enjoyable User Experience of Online Dating Systems”, in Mark Blythe, Andrew...

Origin of relationshopping

Blend of relation(ship) + shopping.

Questions about relationshopping

What does relationshopping mean?
Relationshopping means the practice of seeking romantic or sexual partners based on a shortlist of attributes, like a consumer shopping for a product.
How do you use relationshopping in a sentence?
Some experts believe that an overpowering fear of commitment may be the driving force behind relationshopping, but that is not likely the case.
What part of speech is relationshopping?
Relationshopping is a noun.
How do you pronounce relationshopping?
Relationshopping is pronounced /ɹɪˈleɪʃn̩ˌʃɒpɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near relationshopping in the dictionary

  1. relationshippy
  2. relationships
  3. relationshipwise
  4. relationshit
  5. relationshits
  6. relationshopping
  7. relatival
  8. relative
  9. relative address
  10. relative addresses
  11. relative adjective

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: relationshopping (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-relationshopping.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-relationshopping.wav.

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