cohabiting

6 synonyms for cohabiting, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Verb — Living together in the same home as a couple in a sexual relationship without being married.

Synonyms

Everyday swaps

Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.

sharing

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

living together shacking up partnered coexisting coinhabiting

Synonyms by Meaning

1. verb

Living together in the same home as a couple in a sexual relationship without being married.

“They had been cohabiting for six years before they finally married.”

living together shacking up partnered

2. verb

Sharing the same place or existing alongside one another, said of people, animals or things.

“Two rival species of ant were cohabiting a single rotting log.”

coexisting sharing coinhabiting

How to use cohabiting

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

cohabiting couple cohabiting partner cohabiting without marriage been cohabiting since

Neutral to formal. Standard in legal, statistical and journalistic writing about relationships.

Etymology

From Latin cohabitare, formed from co- 'together' and habitare 'to dwell', a frequentative of habere 'to have, to hold'.

Full origin of cohabiting →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between cohabiting and living together?

They describe the same situation, but cohabiting is the formal term used in law, census forms and research, while living together is the everyday phrase. Cohabiting also carries the specific implication of a romantic or sexual relationship, which 'living together' does not always.

Do cohabiting couples have the same rights as married ones?

In most jurisdictions, no. Cohabiting partners typically lack the automatic inheritance, tax and property rights that marriage confers, which is why the phrase 'common-law marriage' is misleading in many countries.

Can cohabiting be used about people who are not a couple?

Yes, but it is less common and usually sounds slightly technical or humorous, as in describing two species cohabiting a habitat or flatmates cohabiting an untidy kitchen.

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