common-law marriage

Definition of common-law marriagenext

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for common-law marriage
Noun
  • Of the educationally mixed marriages, the majority—62 percent—were hypogamous, up from 39 percent in 1980.
    Stephanie H. Murray, The Atlantic, 31 Mar. 2025
  • Edgar’s absorbing historical study of intermarriage is based on policy documents, Soviet ethnographic research, and over 80 in-depth interviews with members of mixed marriages and their adult children in the ethnically diverse Soviet republic of Kazakhstan and less diverse Tajikistan.
    Robert Hornsby, Foreign Affairs, 24 Oct. 2023
Noun
  • Math alone makes opening domestic partnership to polyamorous relationships challenging.
    Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Life is full of necessary but mundane tasks, and in a domestic partnership, division of labor—who is doing the cooking, who is cleaning, who's got a handle on laundry—always comes up.
    Jana Pollack, Parents, 27 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • The project was part of a $1 billion modernization program. 2011: For the first time in Illinois history, gay and lesbian couples obtained civil unions.
    Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 1 June 2025
  • The 2014 act went further than the original laws by banning marriages and civil unions, the operation of gay organizations and social clubs, public expressions of LGBTQ+ identity and advocacy of LGBTQ+ rights.
    Damisola Sulaiman, The Dial, 20 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Is cohabitation the feminist future?
    Will Gottsegen, The Atlantic, 22 Apr. 2026
  • In a statement regarding the revised bill, per CBS News, Blakespear stressed the importance of cohabitation between Californians and local wildlife species as the effects of climate change worsen.
    Moná Thomas, PEOPLE, 21 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Things were relatively peaceful until my remarriage, which sent my ex over the edge.
    Abigail Van Buren, Boston Herald, 15 Mar. 2026
  • At the time, this film was marketed as a kind of modern-day comedy of remarriage, in which on-the-outs small-town husband-and-wife Dennis Quaid and Roberts got back together.
    Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 10 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • So did laws and court rulings that followed — barring Black men from the militia, barring Black adults from juries, barring Black children from learning alongside white children in public schools, and barring racial intermarriage.
    Equal Justice Initiative, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025
  • But intermarriage could not protect the indigenous peoples, and through wars, disease, and famine their numbers continued to wane.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Common-law marriage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/common-law%20marriage. Accessed 3 May. 2026.

More from Merriam-Webster on common-law marriage

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster