Paramour means: Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.. It carries sexual or vulgar connotations; not alarming on its own but worth understanding the context your teen heard it in. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.
paramour
Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.
Definitions
#1·Apr 27, 2026
Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.
For parents
Paramour means: Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.. It carries sexual or vulgar connotations; not alarming on its own but worth understanding the context your teen heard it in. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.
For ESL learners
paramour means: Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.. Register: very informal, often derogatory or vulgar. Avoid in formal, business, academic, or polite writing. Even in casual speech the word can offend and is best left out of a learner's active vocabulary. A common learner mistake is using the word in a register it does not fit, or assuming a single global meaning; native speakers immediately notice when slang appears in formal contexts, so always check the surrounding register before producing it yourself.
Cluster: sex
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#2·Apr 27, 2026
(intransitive, chiefly, dated) To have an illicit or secret affair with a person, especially someone who is not one's spouse.
Heard in the wild
“he's actually aroace and his repeated role as a dubcon paramour was due to being targeted by the director. Pepe was as uncomfortable as the rest of us, he told me once. RIP to a man whose struggle never really came to light.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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#3·Apr 27, 2026
(chiefly, archaic) A person who is the object of one's love, especially in an affair or romance; a lover; also, a sexual partner.
Origin: The is derived from , paramore, paramours, from and , par amour, paramours (modern ), from par (from , ultimately from ) + amor, amur (from , the of amor, from amō (possibly ultimately from ) + -or). The is from , paramoure, paramur, peramour, from par amour, paramore (see above), possibly from a misinterpretation of to love paramour(s) (“to love passionately”) to mean “to love a beloved person”. The is partly from both of the following: * From , probably derived from the adverb (see above). The Middle English word is only attested in one (possibly 15th-century) source and does not appear t. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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For specific readers
Why is this section here?
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Other words near "paramour" (P)
parade squareparaffinparalyticparamaatmaparamedicparamountParam Vir Chakraparanderoparanumismaticaparanursingparaoptometricparaphrase
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