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Aromantic vs Romantic - What's the difference?

aromantic | romantic |

As adjectives the difference between aromantic and romantic

is that aromantic is not given to experiencing romantic attraction to others while romantic is romantic (pertaining to the romance era).

As a noun aromantic

is one who does not experience romantic attraction to others.

aromantic

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not given to experiencing romantic attraction to others.
  • * 2011 , Soojin Chang, " Sex is the biggest nothing", The Daily Californian , 28 November 2011:
    • Although there are aromantic asexuals who do not experience the instinctual emotional need to be in a romantic relationship, many asexuals seek monogamous partners and value intimate connections just like sexual people.
  • * 2012 , Anthony F. Bogaert, Understanding Asexuality , Rowman & Littlefield (2012), ISBN 9781442200999, unnumbered page:
    • However, if she [Emily Brontë] was asexual, she likely was not aromantic (see chapter 2 for distinction between sex and romance), or at least she had a high-level understanding of romance, as she wrote one of the most intensely romantic novels of her time, Wuthering Heights .
  • * 2012 , Anonymous, " Pandora's box: The stigmas surrounding aromanticism", The Scripps Voice (Scripps College), Volume 16, Issue 4, 1 November 2012, page 5:
    • No, just because I’m aromantic does not automatically mean I am also asexual (I happen to really like sex).
  • *

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who does not experience romantic attraction to others.
  • * 1986 , Wanda Urbanska, The Singular Generation , Doubleday & Company (1986), ISBN 9780385192644, page 86:
    • Ours is a generation of aromantics , jaded about matters of the heart — often before gaining firsthand experience.
  • * 2012 , Marina Hale, " The Drop-Down Menu Identity Crisis", Glass Buffalo (University of Alberta), Spring 2012, page 51:
    • Anna is an asexual, aromantic . Before discovering those terms, she assumed herself to merely be unusually disinterested in sex or relationships.
  • * 2012 , Olivia Gordon, " 'The moment I realised I was asexual'", The Telegraph , 12 November 2012:
    • 'I let it slip one time at work that I’m an asexual aromantic [an asexual who is also not interested in making romantic attachments], and they think it’s absolutely hysterical,’ says Jean Wilson, a sales assistant and 63-year-old grandmother from Banbury. 'One of the women I work with said, “I don’t think you’ve met the right man yet.” I said: “Trish, I’m 63. If I haven’t met him by now I don’t think I’m going to.”’

    Usage notes

    * Not to be confused with aromatic.

    Derived terms

    * aromanticism * aromanticness

    Also see

    * * asexual

    romantic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * romantick (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Fictitious, imaginary.
  • Fantastic, unrealistic (of an idea etc.); fanciful, sentimental, impractical (of a person).
  • Having the qualities of romance (in the sense of something appealing deeply to the imagination); invoking on a powerfully sentimental idea of life; evocative, atmospheric.
  • *
    • But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco.
  • * 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :
    • Somehow she wasn't a real sister, but that only made her the more romantic .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic . But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}
  • Pertaining to an idealised form of love (originally, as might be felt by the heroes of a romance); conducive to romance; loving, affectionate.

    • Synonyms

    * (concerned with romance) nonplatonic, lovesome

    Antonyms

    * platonic, queerplatonic, nonromantic, unromantic, aromantic, antiromantic, nonsexual

    Derived terms

    * bromantic * romantically * romanticism * romanticness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person with romantic character (a character like those of the knights in a mythic romance).
  • A person who is behaving romantically (in a manner befitting someone who feels an idealized form of love).
    • Oh, flowers! You're such a romantic .

    Descendants

    * French: (l) * Italian: (l)