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In a family with multiple married adult children, the non-blood spouses could be referred to, as a group, as the in-laws of the family.

If I also wanted to include unmarried partners (boyfriends/girlfriends), is there some word or phrase I could use? I specifically want to omit the family members themselves - just as the term in-laws excludes them.

I've searched on here and Google and get results relating to common law marriages which is definitely not what I'm looking for.

Who did you invite to the activity while the family is taking care of personal family stuff on our group vacation? All <in-laws, boyfriends, and girlfriends> were, even the new ones.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Adding example sentences -

My father-in-law is throwing a birthday party. All <word/phrase for in-laws, boyfriends, and girlfriends> are being included in the invited.

I am putting together a document to share with <in-laws, boyfriends, and girlfriends> to help them when talking with my mom-in-law so they don't bring up topics that might offend her.

Who did you invite to the activity while the immediate family took care of personal family matters on our group vacation? I invited all of the <in-laws, boyfriends, and girlfriends>, even the new ones.

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    They could just be called "partners" depending on context. There's the general "wives and girlfriends" abbreviated to WAGs but it's not quite a match. Can you give an example sentence or context, eg legal, wedding planning, genealogy, formal, affectionate?
    – Stuart F
    Commented Mar 31 at 23:06
  • @StuartF Yes, that works for half the relatives, but WAG doesn't cover husbands and boyfriends.
    – Peter Jennings
    Commented Apr 1 at 11:17
  • "partners" refers to the member of the couples, but you can't say "partner-in-law". I don't think there's a word like "in-laws" that includes them.
    – Barmar
    Commented Apr 1 at 17:01
  • @StuartF I added some example sentences. WAGs isn't great because of it being gender specific. There might not be a great term. Partners might be the closest? Maybe "all partners of family members"? I wish there was a more specific term though.
    – evan
    Commented Apr 4 at 18:00
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    @RobbieGoodwin Family is not a good word as it would include the direct family members and not exclude them. Also, many people would not include boyfriends/girlfriends as family. There may just not be a good word for this.
    – evan
    Commented Apr 16 at 13:59

4 Answers 4

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For closure, I'm going with "partners".

Context:

I'm creating a chat with the family's partners to talk about gifts.

I have a document for the partners of the family to guide them around touchy subjects.

It's not amazing, but I think it fits the needs the best.

Credit goes to Stuart F who didn't post an answer but did mention partners in the comments to the question.

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significant other has had legs.

It can include spouse, long-term partner, relatively recent but serious love interest.

“Significant other.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/significant%20other. Accessed 17 May. 2024.

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Justified or not, better half has grown to include all genders as well as boy/girlfriends. As its plural, better halves, could work in your examples

My father-in-law is throwing a birthday party. All of the

better halves

of/in the family are being included in/among the invited.

I am putting together a document to share with all of the family/family's

better halves

to help them when talking with my mom-in-law so they don't bring up topics that might offend her.

Who did you invite to the activity while the immediate family took care of personal family matters on our group vacation? I invited all of our

better halves,

even the new(est) ones.

BETTER HALF

noun [... usually singular]
humorous ... plural better halves

A person's better half is their husband, wife, or usual sexual partner.

BETTER HALVES

plural of better half

humorous

(Definition of better half/ves from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press, accessed May 17, 2024)

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Maybe, [family name], in-laws, and plus-ones.

M-W plus-ones
a person who accompanies an invited guest to an event or gathering at which guests are allowed to bring a companion or partner

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    I appreciate the answer. I don't think that's quite what I'm looking for and there may not be a great answer. Maybe plus-ones would work for an event invitation but ideally it would be applicable to something like an email group. As in, "oh yeah, we have an email group for all <in-laws, boyfriends, and girlfriends> to talk about who is getting each family member which holiday gift."
    – evan
    Commented Apr 4 at 18:06
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    One's status as a plus-one is occasion specific. One may accompany someone as a plus-one to a particular event, without having an ongoing relationship with that person. The OP is, I take it, looking for a term for those who stand in some relatively long-term relationship with the family members.
    – jsw29
    Commented Apr 17 at 20:36

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