Meaning & use
self-marriage
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountablerare
A symbolic ceremony in which a person makes a commitment to love and care for themselves, rather than marrying another person.
Grammar: Can be used with 'a' or as an uncountable idea: 'She had a self-marriage ceremony.'
Patterns
- a self-marriage ceremony
- perform a self-marriage
- self-marriage vows
She held a self-marriage ceremony on the beach to celebrate her independence.
The concept of self-marriage is not recognized by law but is meaningful to some people.
He wrote his own self-marriage vows, promising to take care of himself.
Word forms
| plural | self-marriages |
|---|
Common combinations
- self-marriage ceremony
- They attended a self-marriage ceremony in the park.
- self-marriage vows
- She read her self-marriage vows aloud.
- perform a self-marriage
- The artist performed a self-marriage as part of her show.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sologamy
- Sologamy is a more common term for marrying oneself; self-marriage is a literal description of the same idea.
- self-commitment
- Self-commitment is a general promise to oneself; self-marriage specifically involves a ceremony and vows.
Word family
- marriage noun
- The legal or formal union of two people.
- self-marry verb
- To marry oneself in a symbolic ceremony.
Commonly confused: self-marriage or sologamy?
self-marriage vs sologamy
Sologamy is the more established word for the same practice; self-marriage is a direct translation and less common.
Practice
In a ______ ceremony, a person makes a commitment to themselves rather than to a partner.
Choose one answer.
'Self-marriage' is the noun that modifies 'ceremony'; the other options are verb forms or adjectives and do not fit before 'ceremony'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-marriage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.