common-law marriage

1. 1.

   a marriage relationship created by agreement and cohabitation rather than by ceremony

   Broadermarriage

   law

Questions about common-law marriage

What does common-law marriage mean?

common-law marriage means "a marriage relationship created by agreement and cohabitation rather than by ceremony".

Is common-law marriage a common word?

common-law marriage is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.