Name: explori-dating

Meaning: dating, but with an adventurous twist. Instead of sticking to what you know – aka your ‘type’ – explori-dating is all about being flexible with that definition and working out what you really like along the way. Kind of fun, right?

Origin: explori-dating first became a thing at the end of 2021, when Bumble named it as one of its top trends for 2022. According to the dating app, the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns made almost half of us (48%) question what our type was (watching Paul Mescal in Normal People was a lot to take in, after all), leaving more people up for dating in an exploratory way. Almost a year later, that adventurous streak has only become more prevalent, with the dating platform Seeking.com recently naming ‘untyping’ – aka going out of your way to date someone who isn’t your type to address what was missing from your old relationship – as one of its emerging trends.

Tired of endless swiping? ‘Explori-dating’ is the trend making dating fun again