talking to multiple people
/ˈtɔːkɪŋ tuː ˈmʌltɪpəl ˈpiːpəl/
CommonBeing in the talking stage with more than one person at the same time.
Debated online. Some treat it as a healthy way to keep options open before commitment. Others see it as a sign of not being serious or using people. Context matters depending on whether both parties know.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Until you have the exclusivity talk, both of you are probably talking to multiple people. That's just how it is. | Before a commitment conversation, keeping options open is treated as the default. | reddit, 2024 |
| 02 | Found out he was talking to multiple people while telling me I was special. Not the same thing. | The speaker feels betrayed because they were led to believe there was exclusivity. | x, 2024 |
| 03 | Nothing wrong with talking to multiple people at once. You're not a restaurant. You don't need a reservation system. | Defending the practice of keeping multiple options open as normal and reasonable. | tiktok, 2023 |
| 04 | I tried talking to multiple people and I just got confused. Some people can do it, I can't. | The speaker found it emotionally difficult to manage multiple early dating situations at once. | reddit, 2024 |
Use it when
- Someone is having early dating conversations with more than one person before committing.
- Debating whether it is acceptable to keep multiple options open while dating.
- Asking or telling someone whether they are exclusive yet.
Do not use it when
- The people are already in committed relationships.Use “cheating” instead.
- You mean having multiple long-term romantic partners with everyone's knowledge.Use “polyamory” instead.
Origin and context
Emerged as a defined phrase in online dating discourse in the early 2020s alongside the normalization of the talking stage as a pre-relationship phase.
- First seen
- early-2020s
- Confidence
- medium
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Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/talking-to-multiple-peopleUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0