matrimony
Americannoun
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the state of being married; marriage.
He was married in 1870 and lived in matrimony 12 years.
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the rite, ceremony, or sacrament of marriage.
The priest has united them in the bonds of holy matrimony.
noun
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the state or condition of being married
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the ceremony or sacrament of marriage
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a card game in which the king and queen together are a winning combination
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such a combination
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Etymology
Origin of matrimony
1250–1300; Middle English < Latin mātrimōnium wedlock. See matri-, -mony
Explanation
Matrimony is just a fancy way of saying "marriage." When a couple ties the knot, they are engaging in matrimony. You can describe the actual wedding celebration as matrimony, and also the state of being married, although it's a formal word most often used in documents and in the words of the ceremony. The Latin word for matrimony is matrimonium, which comes from combining mater, "mother," with the suffix monium, "action or condition." In the old days, matrimony was basically the same thing as making a woman into a wife and mother.
Vocabulary lists containing matrimony
The Mother of All Lists: Mater, Matr
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It's All in the Family
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Silas Marner
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Matrimony websites have been around for about two decades, and help keep this trend going.
From Slate • Oct. 18, 2022
Matrimony, which owns and operates around 300 marriage-related services, earlier this year launched Jodii, an app that covers nine regional languages to reach a broader swath of the country.
From Reuters • Sep. 6, 2022
"Till death do us part" might be coming sooner rather than later in the new thriller "Deadly Matrimony."
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2018
I was a “male spinster” Topics: bachelorhood, , , , Matrimony, singlehood, The author with his wife, Lucy At the wedding of my younger brother, in 2000, someone mistook me for the groom.
From Salon • Nov. 29, 2012
There’s a paper that says Marriage Certificate, that Malachy McCourt and Angela Sheehan were joined in Holy Matrimony on the twenty-eighth of March, 1930.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
