Swingers Lifestyle - Terminology

Here's some terminology that might come up in swingers lifestyle community :

Bi-curious
A male or female who is interested in trying sexual activities with someone of the same sex.

Closed swinging
Couples are having sex in separate rooms of the same premises.

Hard core swingers
Couple who live, eat, sleep swinging; also swingers who engage in hard core swinging (below).

Hard core swinging
A swinger gathering or meeting is hard core when sex is expected.

Hard swinging
Swinging where there is sexual partner switching, "hard swinging" is synonymous with swapping.

Hedonism
From an involved Greek philosophy and way of life, it is basically the belief that the greatest good in life is to seek physical pleasure. Pleasure seeking. It can be a way of life. The Hedonism resort chain obviously co-opted this concept. They are quite opulent and favorite destinations of swingers, nudists, and fetishists.

Matroom
A room set up for group sex. Also known as a group room.

Meet for pleasure
This expression means, in swinging, that the encounter is not about friendship, but sex only.

Menage a trios
From the French, this means three people set up a household. It includes sexual relations of course. So it really refers to a live-in situation, but it has been generalized quite a bit. On the site, it can often mean any "encounter" in which three people have sex.

Naturists
An actual national organization of nudists, these are nudists with a philosophy, so it includes nature, going back to nature, and a lot of outdoor activities.

Nudists
People who like to be nude and do it as often as possible. They often remain nude in their homes, get together with other nudists for events, or have special places like camps or beaches where they can congregate (in the nude, of course).

Open swinging
Two, plus couples have sex in the same room -- but not necessarily with each other.

Orgy
Group sex, lots of people, lots of parts in lots of holes and no wallflowers allowed.

Polyamory
Sexual relationships with more than one partner. Usually refers to emotional attachment and various agreements between the partners.

Recreational Swinging - No-strings swinging
swinging without attachments, friendships, relationships, emotional connections, etc.

Roman (Roman Style, Roman Culture) - Sex by orgy.

Social - In a swinger context you meet and greet, but don't have sex. Essentially a chance to meet other couples for future sexual encounters.

Soft swinging
Couples get together and engage in sexual activity together, but they only have sex with their own partners -- no partner swapping; no mingling of bodies between couples. But a lot of watching does go on and possibly some touching a touchy matter best negotiated in advance. The hard line for soft swinging is no intercourse between non-mates. A wider definition says that any time a couple brings in a third party, they are swinging (threesomes). But in this case the third party would only watch or be watched.

Swapping
There is physical contact between one or both partner(s) of one couple and one or both partner(s) of another couple.

Swinging
Refers to couples "playing" with other couples or with singles. It doesn't really qualify the degree of play. It tends to mean there is some sort of sex involved.

In any case, the term doesn't really give you any clues as to who does what with whom. For some clue, they have invented the terms "hard swinging" and "soft swinging" and otherwise, you read between the lines.

Threesome - A couple and a third party engage in some form of sexual activity. But it can be used to refer to any three people in a sexual encounter. Every situation is different, so it's important to clarify parameters.

Triad - A three-way, ongoing relationship of mixed sexes, as opposed to a "threesome" which is usually a one-nighter just for sex.

Utopian Swinging - Swinging as a life style, complete with philosophy, which is humanistic in nature.