Definition of: marriage

(mar′ij) noun
1. The act of marrying, or the state of being married; specifically, a compact entered into by a man and a woman, to live together as husband and wife; wedlock. ♦ Collateral adjectives: hymeneal, marital.
2. A wedding; a nuptial celebration: with of or between.
3. Figuratively, any close union.
4. In pinochle, the king and queen of any suit. [<OF mariage, ult. <L maritus a husband] Synonyms: matrimony, nuptials, union, wedding, wedlock. Matrimony denotes the state of those united in the marriage relation; marriage denotes primarily the act of so uniting, but is much used also for the state. Wedlock, a word of specific legal use, is the Saxon term for the state or relation denoted by matrimony. Wedding denotes the ceremony, with any attendant festivities, by which two persons are united as husband and wife, nuptials being the more formal and stately term to express the same idea. Antonyms: bachelorhood, celibacy, divorce, maidenhood, virginity, widowhood.