intimatopia

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UK/ˌɪn.tɪ.məˈtəʊ.pi.ə/US/ˌɪn.tɪ.məˈtoʊ.pi.ə/

noun

A fantasy world that serves as an ideal setting for sexually charged relationships involving a high degree of sustained emotional intimacy.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

nounintimatopia (usually uncountable, plural intimatopias)

plural intimatopias

  1. uncountableusuallyA fantasy world that serves as an ideal setting for sexually charged relationships involving a high degree of sustained emotional intimacy.

    In opposition to romantopia and intimatopia and their respective romance and intimacy foci, paratopia’s interest in the fantastic is more radical.

    2009, Joseph Carl Linden Brennan (October 2009), I am your worst fear, I am your best fantasy: new approaches to slash fiction (PDF), BA honors thesis, Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney (retrieved 2017-11-29; archived from the original 2017-11-29), page 66
    2 more examples

    The crucial difference between romantopia and intimatopia is that in intimatopia, intimacy is normally established before sexual interaction and is always maintained after it, whereas in romantopia, it is only established by sexual interaction and is frequently transitory.

    2006, Elizabeth Woledge, "Intimatopia: genre intersections between slash and the mainstream", chapter 3 (pages 97–114) in Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, editors (2006), Fan fiction and fan communities in the age of the Internet: new essays, (Jefferson, North Carolina, USA: McFarland), page 106

    Lovers in intimatopia are more than “just good friends” but also more than “just lovers” – the emotional, physical and spiritual bond between them is complex and multilayered (Woledge 102).

    2007, Helena Štěpánová (2007), Slash fan fiction and the canon(PDF), BA thesis, Department of English and American Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic (retrieved 2017-11-30; from the original 2017-11-30), pages 20–21

Origin

Blend of intimate + utopia; originally coined by literary scholar Elizabeth Woledge in her essay Intimatopia: genre intersections between slash and the mainstream (2006) to describe the setting in a certain subset of slash fiction.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with intimatopia

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Cite this entry
APA

intimatopia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/intimatopia

MLA

“intimatopia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/intimatopia. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “intimatopia,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/intimatopia.

Source: intimatopia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.