Acronyms dictionary
fwb
or FWB or friends with benefits
What does fwb mean?
A fwb or friend with benefits is a friend someone occasionally has casual sex with.
Where does fwb come from?
Examples of fwb
Who uses fwb?
Fwb can be used to describe a person or a relationship. You can say “He is my fwb,” “She and I were fwb a while back,” or “I heard they just have a fwb thing going on.” The plural of fwb can either be fwb (friends with benefits), or, treating the acronym like its own word, fwbs. While the abbreviated fwb is common in digital communication, friends with benefits is used in casual speech.
A related concept is fuck buddy, which, like fwb, describes a friend with whom one has a sexual, non-committed relationship. There is no clear consensus on the precise difference between the two, but some suggest that fuck buddies are more casual, while friends with benefits emphasizes a meaningful pre-existing friendship between the two parties.
Friends with Benefits was also the title of a 2011 romantic comedy starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, which explored fwb relationships.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of fwb like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of fwb that will help our users expand their word mastery.