Learn English – What’s the word for the person who the cheater is with

meaningsingle-word-requests

What do you call the person who a cheater is with other than their significant other? Is there a word? This is hard to explain, but the person who isn't in the relationship and

the cheater cheats on their significant other with the insert word
here.

It's not the person who is getting cheated on.

Best Answer

Consider paramour:

a lover, especially the illicit partner of a married person.

Oxford Living Dictionaries

This word has connotations of illicitness that apply beyond the contexts of marriage. Someone in a serious relationship (but not married) might also have a paramour.

If it is a man cheating on his spouse with another woman, the go-to term is mistress:

A woman (other than the man's wife) having a sexual relationship with a married man:

Oxford Living Dictionaries

Here are some less satisfying alternatives:

First, homewrecker, which means:

[informal] A person blamed for the break-up of a marriage or long-term relationship, especially as a result of having an affair with one of the partners

Oxford Living Dictionaries

This term is slightly pejorative and skewed to the perspective of the person being cheated on, so it may not work in your context.

Second, side chick (or its variant, side piece):

The girl a guy cheats on his girlfriend with

Urban Dictionary

Both of these are rather informal, so I suspect they may not be what you're looking for.

Lastly, this person is sometimes (euphemistically) referred to as the other woman/man, with emphasis on other.

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