Committed relationship

A committed relationship is an interpersonal relationship based upon agreed-upon commitment to one another involving love, trust, honesty, openness, or some other behavior. Forms of committed relationships include close friendship, intimate relationships, engagement, marriage, and civil unions.

Committed romantic and/or sexual relationships

• Marriage: a legal, religious, and social binding between people.^[1]
• Monogamy: having a single long-term romantic and sexual partner^[2]
  • Ménage à trois: having a domestic arrangement with three people sharing romantic or sexual relations; typically a traditional marriage along with another committed individual, usually a woman^[3]
• Polyamory: encompasses a wide range of relationships; polyamorous relationships may include both committed and casual relationships.
• Group marriage: marital arrangement where three or more adults enter marriage
• Sexual fidelity: not having other sexual partners other than one's committed partner, even temporarily

Non-romantic and/or non-sexual committed relationships

• Family: a group of people related by consanguinity or affinity
• Friendship: certain kinds of friendships are committed, such as best friends forever, bromance, blood brother, and womance
• Queerplatonic relationship: a relationship considered as explicitly committed as a romantic relationship, but with different feelings behind it

See also

• Attachment in adults
• Attachment theory
• Attachment and health
• Fear of commitment
• Hookup culture: a culture encouraging numerous and sometimes anonymous sexual partners
• Human bonding
• Open relationship: having a partner without excluding other romantic or sexual involvement
• Open marriage: marital arrangement where partners agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual or romantic relationships
• Polygamy: having multiple married partners
  • Polyandry: having multiple married male partners
  • Polygyny: having multiple married female partners
• Promiscuity: having casual sexual partners at will (compare with chastity)
• Relationship anarchy: having relationships that develop as an agreement between those involved, rather than according to predetermined rules or norms.
• Serial monogamy: having a series of monogamous relationships, one after the other
• Sexual infidelity: having a sexual relationship without a commitment to have no other sexual partners
• Shipping: followers of either real-life people or fictional characters to be in a romantic or sexual relationship
• Love–hate relationship: intense simultaneous or alternating emotions of love and hate, a committed frenemy or sibling rivalry

References

1. Haviland, William A.; Prins, Harald E.L.; McBride, Bunny; Walrath, Dana (2011). Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge (13th ed.). Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0495811787.
2. "What Is Monogamy?". WebMD. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
3. Debruge, Peter (October 13, 2017). "Film Review: 'Professor Marston and the Wonder Women'". Yahoo. Retrieved March 9, 2022.