Word.ws English Dictionary

common-law marriage

common-law marriage noun: a state of marriage, or legal recognition similar to that of marriage, enjoyed by a couple who have not undergone an official marriage ceremony, but instead based on the duration of cohabitation or other practical characteristics of the relationship.

Noun

common-law marriage (countable and uncountable, plural common-law marriages)

  1. A state of marriage, or legal recognition similar to that of marriage, enjoyed by a couple who have not undergone an official marriage ceremony, but instead based on the duration of cohabitation or other practical characteristics of the relationship.

Synonyms of common-law marriage

Forms of common-law marriage

pluralcommon-law marriages

Questions about common-law marriage

What does common-law marriage mean?
Common-law marriage means a state of marriage, or legal recognition similar to that of marriage, enjoyed by a couple who have not undergone an official marriage ceremony, but instead based on the duration of cohabitation or other practical characteristics of the relationship.
What part of speech is common-law marriage?
Common-law marriage is a noun.
What is the plural of common-law marriage?
The plural of common-law marriage is common-law marriages.

Words near common-law marriage in the dictionary

  1. common-and-garden
  2. Common-Civil-Calendar-and-Time Calendar
  3. common-ion effect
  4. common-ion effects
  5. common-law
  6. common-law marriage
  7. common-law marriages
  8. common-or-garden
  9. common-place
  10. common-placed
  11. common-places

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: common-law marriage (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “common-law marriage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/common-law_marriage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.