Shrekking to chatfishing: How Gen Z rewrote dating language in 2025

If 2025 proved anything, it is that dating no longer just happens. It is analysed, labelled, meme-ified and given a name before the feelings even settle. Modern romance did not simply evolve this year, it developed its own vocabulary. Gen Z and young millennials spent the year diagnosing situationships like case studies, turning emotional patterns into buzzwords that travelled faster than commitment ever could.



From neighbourhood-only dating rules to AI-assisted flirting, 2025 was the year love became linguistic. As we step into 2026, here is a look at the dating terms that defined the year and quietly exposed how confused, cautious and self-aware the dating generation has become.

After years of long-distance talking stages and endless scrolling, many singles decided proximity was the new standard. Zip-coding became the unofficial rule of dating only within your own neighbourhood or postcode.



The thinking was practical rather than romantic. Less travel, fewer excuses, more consistency. If someone could not meet within a short commute, they were simply not worth the emotional investment. It was dating with boundaries, shaped by burnout and a collective refusal to romanticise inconvenience.

Catfishing had fake faces. Chatfishing had fake effort.

This term described the rise of people outsourcing their romantic conversations to artificial intelligence tools. Instead of crafting replies themselves, users fed screenshots into apps to generate charming, emotionally intelligent responses. The result was perfectly worded messages that felt thoughtful but were not actually thought through.



While some defended it as modern assistance, others saw it as emotional laziness dressed up as tech-savviness. Either way, it blurred the line between authenticity and performance.

Shrekking was the year’s reality check.

The term described people intentionally choosing partners they believed were beneath their standards, assuming this imbalance would keep them safe from heartbreak. The irony was brutal. Many who tried it ended up rejected, blindsided or emotionally outplayed by the very person they underestimated.



It became a reminder that attraction does not follow ego and that underestimating someone is rarely the power move people think it is.

Somewhere between honesty and fantasy lived bio-baiting.

This referred to dating profiles that exaggerated personality traits and lifestyles just enough to sound impressive. Not outright lies, just carefully curated versions of the truth. Adventurers who rarely travelled, readers who barely finished books, and food lovers whose main skill was ordering takeaway.



The behaviour highlighted how dating apps turned identity into marketing, where potential mattered more than reality.

One of the most controversial phrases of 2025 encouraged people to stay in relationships long enough to emotionally detach.

Rather than communicating issues or leaving early, the idea was to let resentment grow until feelings disappeared naturally. While some framed it as self-protection, others criticised it for normalising emotional avoidance and passive cruelty.




It sparked uncomfortable conversations about how people exit relationships and why honest endings still feel harder than silent ones.

Amid the chaos, clear coding emerged as a refreshing shift.

Instead of playing guessing games, singles began stating their intentions upfront. Whether they wanted commitment, something casual or nothing serious at all, the idea was to remove ambiguity early.



Driven by growing demand for emotional transparency, clear coding became one of the healthiest dating movements of the year, even if not everyone followed it consistently.

Monkey-barring described people who stayed in relationships until another emotional safety net was secured.

Rather than risking being alone, they transitioned quietly from one connection to the next. The term drew attention to fear-driven dating habits and raised questions about emotional ethics, rebound dynamics and the cost of avoiding uncertainty.



If ghosting vanished overnight, Banksying disappeared slowly.

This term captured the act of gradually withdrawing affection while maintaining the appearance of a relationship. Communication thinned, emotional warmth faded, but nothing was explicitly ended.

It became one of the most criticised dating behaviours of the year, exposing how avoidance can be more damaging than honesty.



2025 surely comes to a close, but dating is no longer just about chemistry. It is about patterns, language and self-awareness. And as we move into 2026, the dictionary of modern love is still being written, one messy term at a time.