Biromantic
Romantic attraction to more than one gender.
Biromantic means being romantically attracted to more than one gender. It is the romantic half of the pairing that gives bisexual its meaning, and it is written separately because the two halves do not always match.
That mismatch is the reason the word exists. Someone can be biromantic and heterosexual, or biromantic and asexual, and either combination is invisible if only one word is used.
As with bisexual, more than one does not mean exactly two, and biromantic people include nonbinary people in both directions: among those feeling the attraction and among those it is felt toward.
Biromantic is not a softer word for bisexual
It gets treated as a way of saying bisexual without saying sex, which misses what it does. The two words describe different attractions and can genuinely differ in the same person.
Writing both is how someone says something precise: biromantic asexual is a complete description that neither word manages alone.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am biromantic.
- Biromantic and asexual.
- Biromantic heterosexual, which needs both words.
- More than one gender, romantically.
Not this
- So you are just bisexual
- Biromantic means two genders only
- So you cannot decide
- That is the same thing
Questions people actually ask
What does biromantic mean?
Being romantically attracted to more than one gender.
What is the difference between biromantic and bisexual?
Biromantic is about romantic attraction, bisexual about sexual attraction. A person can be one without the other.
Does biromantic exclude nonbinary people?
No. More than one gender has never meant exactly two.