A committed relationship in which partners agree that sexual or romantic involvement with other people is permitted. The specifics of what is allowed, and with whom, are set by the people involved rather than assumed from a single standard script.
Open relationships are often chosen by people who want a primary partnership and also want freedom for outside connections, and they tend to work best when everyone involved talks about boundaries early and often. The arrangement can look very different from couple to couple, which is why the word open describes a category rather than one fixed format.
Worth knowing: Clear agreements about sexual health, testing, disclosure, and what counts as a breach of trust are essential, and revisiting those agreements as circumstances change matters more than getting them perfect at the start.
Also called: consensual non-monogamy, ethical non-monogamy, polyamory, swinging, open marriage, relationship anarchy, monogamish
