MARRIED definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary (2025)

COBUILD frequency band

married

(mærid )

1.adjective A2

If you are married, you have a husband or wife.

We have been married for 14 years.

She is married to an Englishman. [+ to]

...a married man with two children.

Synonyms: wedded, one, united, joined More Synonyms of married

2.adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]

Married means relating to marriage or to people who are married.

For the first ten years of our married life we lived in a farmhouse.

Synonyms: marital, wifely, husbandly, nuptial More Synonyms of married

3.adjective

If you say that someone is married to their work or another activity, you mean that they are very involved with it and have little interest in anything else.

She was a very strict Christian who was married to her job. [+ to]

I'm married to my cricket.

British English pronunciation

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American English pronunciation

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married in British English

(ˈmærɪd )

adjective

having a husband or wife

joined in marriage

a married couple

of or involving marriage or married persons

closely or intimately united

noun

5.(usually plural)

a married person (esp in the phrase young marrieds)

COBUILD frequency band

married in American English

(ˈmærid )

adjective

living together as spouses; joined in wedlock

having a spouse

of marriage or married people; connubial; conjugal

closely or intimately joined

noun

a married person

chiefly in young marrieds

COBUILD frequency band

married in American English

(ˈmærid)

adjective

united in wedlock; wedded

married couples

of or pertaining to marriage or married persons; connubial; conjugal

married happiness

3.(of an antique)

created from components of two or more authentic pieces

interconnected or joined; united

5.(of a family name)

acquired through marriage

noun

6.(usually marrieds)

married couples or married people

young marrieds moving into their first home

Derived forms

marriedly

adverb

Word origin

[1325–75; ME; see marry1, -ed2]

Examples of 'married' in a sentence

married

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And who in their right minds would want to get married on it?

The Guardian (2020)

It only took three months before we were married.

The Guardian (2016)

We met and got married and all was well.

The Guardian (2020)

He was a married father of two.

The Guardian (2015)

They got married after she got pregnant.

The Guardian (2019)

She spent most of her early married life avoiding her husband.

Times, Sunday Times (2016)

He wants to get married but first he needs his own roof over his head.

Times, Sunday Times (2012)

It seems to be more common than not that a young wife finds herself married to a man who resembles an adolescent.

Christianity Today (2000)

Her book purports to be a nobleman's account of his love affair with a married woman.

Pamela Norris Words Of Love: Passionate Women from Heloise to Sylvia Plath (2006)

Or agreeing to get married.

Times, Sunday Times (2009)

COBUILD Collocations

married

newly married

unhappily married