conscious uncoupling

noun

Divorce or similar separation.

Meanings

nounconscious uncoupling (countable and uncountable, plural conscious uncouplings)

plural conscious uncouplings

  1. countablehumorousneologismuncountableusuallyDivorce or similar separation.

    Most “conscious uncouplings” after 50 are initiated by financially stable women who are still working or have enough money to set out solo.

    2015, Lois Joy Johnson, The Woman's Wakeup: How to Shake Up Your Looks, Life, and Love After 50, Running Press, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    Few organisations have an enterprise relationship management strategy, few have documented processes and can verbalise how relationships are created and maintained. Even fewer can describe how relationships are exited in a way that all parties remain whole through 'conscious uncoupling'.

    2016, Andrew Humphries, Richard Gibbs, Enterprise Relationship Management: A Paradigm For Alliance Success, Routledge, →ISBN

    As product selling and solution selling split off from accelerator selling (call it “conscious uncoupling” if you like), there are two major implications.

    2016, Lou Schachter, Rick Cheatham, Selling Vision: The X-XY-Y Formula for Driving Results by Selling Change, McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 109

Origin

Coined by the author Katherine Woodward Thomas, popularised by Gwyneth Paltrow, who used the phrase to describe her divorce.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

conscious uncoupling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/conscious%20uncoupling

MLA

“conscious uncoupling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/conscious%20uncoupling. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “conscious uncoupling,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/conscious%20uncoupling.

Source: conscious uncoupling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.