A polycule is the network of people connected through romantic or sexual relationships that involve polyamory, where each person may have multiple partners and those partners may in turn have other partners. The term covers everyone linked by these overlapping connections, whether or not every member is directly involved with every other member.
People in polycules often find that the structure reduces the pressure on any single relationship to meet every need, and many develop genuine friendships or chosen-family bonds with their metamours, the partners of their partners. In practice, polycules vary widely in shape, from a simple V where one person dates two others who are not involved with each other, to larger webs spanning households and cities.
Worth knowing: Healthy polycules depend on clear, ongoing communication about boundaries, safer sex practices, and emotional availability, and members benefit from agreeing on how new partners are introduced and how conflict gets handled.
Also called: polyamorous network, relationship web, poly family, chosen family, kitchen table polyamory, parallel polyamory, hierarchical polyamory, solo polyamory
