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common-law marriage definition

common-law· marriage (käm′ən lô′)

Law a marriage not solemnized by religious or civil ceremony but effected by agreement to live together as husband and wife and, usually, by the fact of such cohabitation

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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