Squish

A squish is the feeling of a strong platonic attraction: wanting to be close friends or platonic partners with someone without romantic or sexual desire attached. The term grew out of aromantic and asexual communities, including forums like the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), which developed detailed vocabulary for kinds of attraction that mainstream language often collapses into "crush." Where a crush points toward romance, a squish points toward deep friendship or emotional closeness. Related words have followed, such as calling a desired close friend a "squish" and describing people who do not experience squishes as aplatonic. The word is now widely used across aro and ace spaces to name a real and specific form of connection.