Meanings
plural May-September romances
- A romantic relationship where one partner is significantly older than the other.
The 40-year-old man and his 20-year-old girlfriend were involved in a May-September romance.
1 more example
And, any hope for nurturing a May to September-style romance at my age would require me to stalk a geriatric ward.
2025 May 24, Jo Ellison, “The exquisite cringe of the age-gap romance”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21Synonyms: May-December romance
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA romantic relationship where one partner is significantly older than the other.
Origin
From the metaphor of a year being the lifespan of a person, May being a time of relative youth and September being late in maturity.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
May-September romance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/May-September%20romance
“May-September romance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/May-September%20romance. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “May-September romance,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/May-September%20romance.
Source: May-September romance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.