Table of Contents
Definition of Group Marriage
(noun) Four or more individuals in a marriage with at least two men and two women.
Group Marriage Pronunciation
Syllabification: group mar·riage
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /grOOp mAIR-ij/
- British English – /grOOp mAr-ij/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /grup ˈmɛrɪʤ/
- British English – /gruːp ˈmærɪʤ/
Usage Notes
- Plural: group marriages
- A type of marriage.
- Group Marriage: A Study of Contemporary Multilateral Marriage (1973) by Larry and Joan Constantine studied group marriage as form of egalitarian relationship which they called multilateral marriage.
- A type of polyamory and polygamy.
Additional Information
- Family and Kinship Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “group” and “marriage” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
Works Consulted
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2011. Sociology: The Core. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Cite the Definition of Group Marriage
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “group marriage.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 20, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/group-marriage/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
group marriage. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/group-marriage/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “group marriage.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 20, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/group-marriage/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“group marriage.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/group-marriage/>.