- marriage
- marriage, matrimony, wedlock, wedding, nuptial, espousal are comparable though not always synonymous because they all refer directly or indirectly to acts by which a man and woman become husband and. wife or to the state of being husband and wife.Marriage is the common term; it may apply to the rite or ceremony{
many were present at their marriage
}{a civil marriage
}but it more often applies to the legal or spiritual relation which is entered upon{joined in marriage
}{annul a marriage
}or to the state of being married{theirs was a long and happy marriage
}or to the institution as an abstraction{nor does he dishonor marriage that praises virginity— Donne
}In extended use the term is applicable to any similarly close and intimate union{let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments— Shak.
}{the same sort of poetic effect as the Romantics obtained by the marriage of fertile words—Day Lewis
}Matrimony is in most contexts interchangeable with marriage, but it is the more appropriate term in religious and sometimes in legal use; in many Christian churches it designates one of the seven sacraments{matrimony is the sacrament which unites in holy wedlock a man and a woman, between whom there is no impediment that would render marriage null and void— Currier
}The term therefore may be chosen in place of marriage when a religious ceremony or sanction is implied{joined in bonds of holy matrimony
}In general the term is more often applied to the relationship which exists between husband and wife than to the ceremony or the state of marriage{so prays the Church, to consecrate a vow "The which would endless matrimony make"—Wordsworth
}Wedlock, chiefly legal or archaic, applies especially to marriage as a legally or ecclesiastically sanctioned relationship or state; thus, children born out of wedlock are children of parents who are not legally married{grave authors say, and witty poets sing, that honest wedlock is a glorious thing— Pope
}Wedding is the common term for the ceremony that marks a marriage and the festivities that accompany it{a thousand invitations to the wedding were sent out
}Nuptial, usually as the plural nuptials, is a more rhetorical term than wedding; it also carries a stronger implication of an elaborate ceremony{I don't object to married priests, but I do strongly object to their nuptials. . . . When a priest . . . indulges in an immense artistic wedding, I feel there is something undignified and almost unpleasant about it— Mackenzie
}Espousal, often as the plural espousals, differs little from nuptial except in its extended application. In the latter use it implies a spiritual union, especially one that is dependent upon a vow or pledge{let every act of worship be like our espousals, Lord, to thee— John Wesley
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.