exogamy

American  

[ek-sog-uh-mee] / ɛkˈsɒg ə mi /

noun

1. marriage outside a specific tribe or similar social unit.

2. Biology. the union of gametes of unrelated parents.

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exogamy British  

/ ɛkˈsɒɡəmɪ /

noun

1. sociol anthropol the custom or an act of marrying a person belonging to another tribe, clan, or similar social unit Compare endogamy

2. biology fusion of gametes from parents that are not closely related

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Other Word Forms

• exogamic
  adjective
• exogamous
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of exogamy

First recorded in 1860–65; exo- + -gamy

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Compare meaning

How does exogamy compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• endogamy vs. exogamy

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

exogamy

Communities were locally centred around a main patriline, were related to each other through the systematic practice of female exogamy.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024

For under the conventions is a shrewd stockbreeder's intuition that blood lines are strengthened by a little exogamy.

From Time Magazine Archive

No one kind of evidence—neither traces of marriage by capture, of exogamy, of totemism, of tradition, of noted fact among Lycians and Picts and Irish—would alone suffice to guide our opinion in this direction.

From Custom and Myth New Edition by Andrew Lang

And again: "It is a curious fact that nowhere now, that we are aware of, is infanticide a system where exogamy and the earliest form of kinship co-exists."

From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels

They are divided into seven tribes, obviously totemic, and with rules as to exogamy still in force.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various

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