matrimony

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

}