Meaning & use
prior marriage
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A marriage that someone had before their current marriage or situation.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a prior marriage' or 'two prior marriages'.
Patterns
- a prior marriage
- children from a prior marriage
- someone's prior marriage
The lawyer asked about any prior marriage during the divorce proceedings.
He has two children from a prior marriage.
She did not mention her prior marriage in the interview.
Word forms
| plural | prior marriages |
|---|
Common combinations
- children from a prior marriage
- She has two children from a prior marriage.
- end a prior marriage
- He ended a prior marriage before moving abroad.
- a prior marriage to someone
- Her prior marriage to a musician ended in 2010.
Synonyms and how they differ
- previous marriage
- This is the everyday phrase and is less formal than 'prior marriage'.
- former marriage
- This is similar but slightly more formal and often used in legal writing.
Word family
Commonly confused: prior marriage or previous marriage?
prior marriage vs previous marriage
These mean the same, but 'previous marriage' is more common in everyday English, while 'prior marriage' is more formal and often used in legal contexts.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'prior marriage' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Prior marriage' is a noun phrase, so it can follow 'from' or be the subject or object. Sentence C uses it correctly after 'from'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “prior marriage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.