marriage
Americannoun
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(broadly) any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage:
Anthropologists say that some type of marriage has been found in every known human society since ancient times.
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Also called opposite-sex marriage. the form of this institution under which a man and a woman have established their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
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this institution expanded to include two partners of the same gender, as in
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the state, condition, or relationship of being married; wedlock.
They have a happy marriage.
- Synonyms:
- matrimony
- Antonyms:
- singleness, spinsterhood, bachelorhood
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the legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of two people to live as a married couple, including the accompanying social festivities.
to officiate at a marriage.
- Synonyms:
- wedding
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a relationship in which two people have pledged themselves to each other in the manner of a husband and wife, without legal sanction.
trial marriage.
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any close or intimate association or union.
the marriage of words and music in a hit song.
- Antonyms:
- schism, disunion, division, separation
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a formal agreement between two companies or enterprises to combine operations, resources, etc., for mutual benefit; merger.
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a blending or matching of different elements or components.
The new lipstick is a beautiful marriage of fragrance and texture.
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Cards. a meld of the king and queen of a suit, as in pinochle.
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a piece of antique furniture assembled from components of two or more authentic pieces.
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Obsolete. the formal declaration or contract by which act a man and a woman join in wedlock.
noun
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the state or relationship of living together in a legal partnership
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the legal union or contract made by two people to live together
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( as modifier )
marriage licence
marriage certificate
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the religious or legal ceremony formalizing this union; wedding
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a close or intimate union, relationship, etc
a marriage of ideas
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(in certain card games, such as bezique, pinochle) the king and queen of the same suit
Synonym Usage
Marriage, wedding, nuptials are terms for the ceremony uniting couples in wedlock. Marriage is the simple and usual term, without implications as to circumstances and without emotional connotations: to announce the marriage of a daughter. Wedding has rather strong emotional, even sentimental, connotations, and suggests the accompanying festivities, whether elaborate or simple: a beautiful wedding; a reception after the wedding. Nuptials is a formal and lofty word applied to the ceremony and attendant social events; it does not have emotional connotations but strongly implies surroundings characteristic of wealth, rank, pomp, and grandeur: royal nuptials. It appears frequently on newspaper society pages chiefly as a result of the attempt to avoid continual repetition of marriage and wedding.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of marriage
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mariage, from Old French, equivalent to mari(er) “to wed” + -age noun suffix; see origin at marry 1 , -age
Explanation
Marriage is when two people join together through a legal contract, a religious ceremony, or both. In some cultures, marriage is arranged by families, and in others people choose their own husbands or wives if they decide to marry. There are some places where marriage is limited to unions between a man and a woman, while more and more states and countries recognize marriage between same-sex couples too. You can also use the noun marriage to talk about a more figurative link between two things: “The song was a strange marriage of Bavarian polka and punk rock.”
Vocabulary lists containing marriage
It's All in the Family
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"Atalanta's Race"
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 9
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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.
See Examples For:
It’s a marriage of many appealing aspects for any streaming service: Commercially successful stories with a built-in fan base that come with distinctive lead characters to turn into many more sequels and spinoffs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Huckle called Angel Island “a marriage of natural beauty with great, powerful, historic information.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Near the top of the list: Divorces where the spouse who stays home with the children is left with very little after decades of marriage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Bill and Melinda Gates divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Still unaware that the FBI was watching his every move, he surprised Gerda with a marriage proposal.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
It is not clear why the men agreed to enter into the marriages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Some couples say their marriages hinge on one party coming around to their spouse’s cat, dealing with severe rashes, smelly litter boxes and early wakeups for love.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
But they all have some of them, and it’s messing up their lives and their jobs and their marriages.
From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2026
The marriages are not legally binding, but viewers see the couples go on "honeymoons", before moving in together and navigating their relationships - all while being filmed, almost every day.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
We had always known that the regent had the right to arrange marriages for us, but now it was no longer an abstract possibility.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
