Definition of "marriage" []

• The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife. (noun)
• The state of being married; wedlock. (noun)
• A common-law marriage. (noun)
• A union between two persons having the customary but usually not the legal force of marriage: a same-sex marriage. (noun)
• A wedding. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It seems to me that the debate about gay marriage has been framed in two extremes: either you must accept homosexual unions as *exactly the same as heterosexual marriage* (the liberal position), or rail on about the Evil of the Gay Agenda (the conservative position)."
• "New Jersey - Chapter 37 - again, assumption of opposite-sex marriage but *no ban on same-sex marriage*."
• "Now, Montaigne endeavours to apply this thought to the institution of marriage; and he descends, in doing so, to the following irrational argument: -- 'Let us select the most necessary and most useful institution of human society: _it is marriage_."