relationshopping

English

WOTD – 12 December 2025

Etymology

Blend of relation(ship) +‎ shopping.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈleɪʃn̩ˌʃɒpɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈleɪʃənˌʃɑpɪŋ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧lat‧ion‧shop‧ping

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.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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 of dating speculation. It is a love gamble created by the fear that you may be settling for your current partner and you might be better off with someone else.

   • 2016, Pere Estupinyà, “Sex in Bars”, in Mara Faye Lethem, transl., S=EX²: The Science of Sex, [Cham, Zug, Switzerland]: Copernicus Books, Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, page 173:

     [T]he day we head out of the house with a very specific image of a shoe in our heads, we are most likely to go from store to store without finding any that meet our expectations. The same thing can happen when looking for a partner at online dating sites, […] Researchers call this phenomenon relationshopping, and it consists of logging in to a dating site, browsing and analyzing profiles as if they were products in a shop, and ending up with the feeling that there isn't a single one you like.

   • 2018, Doug Zytko, Sukeshini Grandhi, Quentin Jones, “The (Un)Enjoyable User Experience of Online Dating Systems”, in Mark Blythe, Andrew Monk, editors, Funology 2: From Usability to Enjoyment (Human–Computer Interaction Series), 2nd edition, Cham, Zug, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, part II (Critique), pages 65–66:

     "Relationshopping" is detrimental to users' romantic relationship goals for two reasons. One, there is evidence that ideal romantic partner preferences do not predict romantic attraction in-person […] Worse, this "relationshopping" spree of profile page evaluation can become a circular process of dissatisfaction.

Translations

practice of seeking romantic or sexual partners based on a shortlist of attributes

Finnish: suhdeshoppailu French: please add this translation if you can