abbreviation

LDR

ell-dee-ARR

LDR (abbreviation) means Long-distance relationship: a romantic partnership between people who live far enough apart that they cannot see each other regularly in person. Example: “We did an LDR for two years while she finished her degree.”

abbreviation

informal Long-distance relationship: a romantic partnership between people who live far enough apart that they cannot see each other regularly in person.

"We did an LDR for two years while she finished her degree."

"LDRs work when both people know roughly when it ends."

How to Use LDR

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishA couple who live far apart and rarely see each other.

When to use it

Informal, mostly online, in dating profiles and relationship forums. Write it out in full in any formal context.

Memory tip

Take the article a rather than an, since the initialism is read as ell-dee-arr: a long-distance relationship, an LDR.

Trace the full origin ↓

Easily confused with

LDR vs long-distance friendship

Common pairings

in an LDR LDR couple survive an LDR LDR advice

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We did an _____ for two years while she finished her degree.

Etymology

An initialism of "long-distance relationship".

Origin: English

Rhymes for LDR

TL;DR

See all rhymes for LDR →

Frequently Asked Questions

What does LDR stand for?

It stands for long-distance relationship, meaning a couple separated by enough distance that visits require planning and travel rather than an evening out.

How far apart do you have to be for it to count as an LDR?

There is no fixed threshold. The usual test is practical rather than geographical: if seeing each other requires a planned trip rather than a short journey, most people would call it an LDR.

Is LDR used outside dating?

Occasionally people apply it loosely to close friendships kept up across countries, but by default it means a romantic relationship. In technical writing the same letters can mean light-dependent resistor, so context matters.