rom-com

noun

ˈräm-ˌkäm 

plural rom-coms

: romantic comedy

That's where the rom-com comes in, that wayward genre of sweet serendipity and forgivably thin plots set to rising music …

—Vogue

One of the film's pleasures is its movie within a movie, the rom-com "I Love You, I Love New York."

—Tad Friend

—often used before another noun

a silly rom-com plot

Does anybody cry funnier than Segel does in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the wonderful rom-com farce he not only starred in but wrote?

—Jim Windolf

Examples of rom-com in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In Boyfriend on Demand, Netflix’s glossy new Korean rom-com, Blackpink’s Jisoo stars as Seo Mi-rae, a 29-year-old woman who works as a producer at a small webtoon company in Seoul. —Kayti Burt, Time, 6 Mar. 2026

Emma Watson is pulling her moves straight from the golden age of rom-coms. —Glamour, 5 Mar. 2026

Instead of this being explored, this is the turn at the second act of the rom-com, where there is a miscommunication that threatens to derail the whole thing. —Brian Moylan, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2026

May and Apa recently filmed the upcoming rom-com Falling. —Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 26 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1958, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for rom-com

• aplomb
• balaam
• cocom
• embalm
• islam
• pogrom
• salaam
• sitcom
• balm
• bom
• bomb
• calm