marriage
The definition of marriage is the religious or legal process through which people become husband and wife, husband and husband or wife and wife, or the state of being married.
(noun)An example of marriage is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
See marriage in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun
- the state of being married; relation between spouses; married life; wedlock; matrimony
- the act of marrying; wedding
- the rite or form used in marrying
- any close or intimate union
- the king and queen of a suit, esp. as a meld in pinochle
Origin: ME mariage < OFr < marier: see marry
See marriage in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
- a. The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife, and in some jurisdictions, between two persons of the same sex, usually entailing legal obligations of each person to the other.b. A similar union of more than two people; a polygamous marriage.c. A union between persons that is recognized by custom or religious tradition as a marriage.d. A common-law marriage.e. The state or relationship of two adults who are married: Their marriage has been a happy one.
- A wedding.
- A close union: “the most successful marriage of beauty and blood in mainstream comics” (Lloyd Rose).
- Games The combination of the king and queen of the same suit, as in pinochle.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English mariage
Origin: , from Old French
Origin: , from marier, to marry; see marry1
.See marriage in Ologies
Marriage
See also relationship;wife
adelphogamy
the form of marriage in which brothers have a common wife or wives. —adelphogamic, adj.
the state or practice of being married to more than one wife or one husband at a time. —bigamist, n. —bigamous, adj.
the state of being single or unmarried, especially in the case of one bound by vows not to marry. —celibate, n., adj.
celibatist
an advocate of celibacy.
cicisbeism
the practice of a married woman having an escort or cavalier, called a cicisbeo, in attendance.
digamism. —deuterogamist, n. —deuterogamous, adj.
a second legal marriage after the termination of a first marriage by death or divorce. Also called deuterogamy. —digamist, n. —digamous, adj.
the custom of marrying only within one’s tribe or similar social unit. —endogamic, endogamous, adj.
a song or poem composed and performed in honor of a bride or groom.
the practice of marrying only outside one’s tribe or similar social unit. —exogamic, exogamous, adj.
gamomania
1. Obsolete, a form of mania characterized by strange and extravagant proposals of marriage.
2. an excessive longing for the married state.
gamophobia
an abnormal fear of marriage.
mariticide
the killing of a husband. —mariticidal, adj.
the act or state of marriage; married life. —matrimonial, adj.
a hatred of marriage. —misogamist, n. —misogamic, adj.
the custom of marriage to only one man at a time. —monandrous, adj.
the custom of marriage to one wife or one husband at a time. —monogamous, adj.
designating or pertaining to a marriage between a man of high social standing and a woman of lower station in which the marriage contract stipulates that neither she nor their offspring will have claim to his rank or property.
neogamist
a person recently married; a newlywed.
the condition of being marriageable, especially in reference to a woman’s age or physical development. —nubile, adj.
pantagamy
a form of marriage in which every woman in a community is married to every man and every man is married to every woman. —pantagamic, adj.
the best man or maid of honor at a wedding.
the practice of having two or more husbands at a time. —polyandrous, adj.
the practice or state of being married to more than one person at a time. —polygamous, adj.
the practice of having two or more wives at a time. —polygynous, polygynious, adj.
a nuptial or wedding song or verse.
trigamy
the condition of having three spouses, especially in the criminal sense of having them simultaneously. —trigamous, adj.
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