married

married — adjective

1. describes a person who has a legally recognised husband or wife and is no longer

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

describes a person who has a legally recognised husband or wife and is no longer single

Example

Quan and his wife have been married for twelve years now.

The hotel offers special discounts for married couples.

attributive use: married couples / married people

Common collocations
  • married couple
  • married woman
  • married man
  • married life
  • married name
Synonyms
  • wedded

    very formal or literary; not used in everyday conversation

  • hitched

    informal slang, common in casual speech ('get hitched')

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

be married

married + noun

Usage Note

Can be placed before a noun (a married woman) or after a linking verb (they are married). The opposite states are single or divorced.

Common Mistakes

I am married with John.
I am married to John.
the preposition after 'married' is always 'to', never 'with'.

2. to enter into a legal marriage through a ceremony, becoming someone's husband or

2.adjectiveA2
Definition

to enter into a legal marriage through a ceremony, becoming someone's husband or wife

Example

Walid and Diya got married in a small ceremony by the lake.

get married + place phrase

My cousin plans to get married to her boyfriend next spring.

get married to someone

Common collocations
  • get married in [place]
  • get married to [person]
Synonyms
  • tie the knot

    informal idiom, very common in speech

  • wed

    formal or literary; used in official contexts

Antonyms
  • divorce

    the legal ending of a marriage

  • separate

    to stop living together without legally divorcing

Grammar Patterns

get married

get married to someone

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: sense 1 describes the ongoing state (be married); sense 2 describes the event of entering that state (get married). In everyday English, 'get married' is far more common than 'marry' as a verb for the ceremony.

Common Mistakes

We married last weekend.' (grammatically correct but very formal)
We got married last weekend.
'get married' is the natural choice in everyday English.

3. so committed to an activity, usually one's job, that it leaves little room for o

3.adjectiveB2
Definition

so committed to an activity, usually one's job, that it leaves little room for other interests or relationships

Example

Tariro is so married to her job that she rarely takes a day off.

married to + job/work

My uncle is married to his career and has no interest in dating.

Common collocations
  • married to one's job
  • married to one's career
  • married to the company
Synonyms
  • devoted

    positive connotation; less intense than 'married to'

  • dedicated

    strong commitment, but still allows for other interests

  • consumed by

    suggests the activity takes over one's entire life

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

be married to + noun phrase

Usage Note

Always used figuratively with 'to' + a non-person noun phrase (job, career, company, project). The object is never a person — saying 'married to my friend' here would be understood literally, not figuratively.

Common Mistakes

She is married with her job.
She is married to her job.
even in the figurative sense, the preposition is 'to', never 'with'.

married — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All three words relate to the state of being married, but they behave differently. Married is the everyday word used both before nouns (a married man) and after verbs (they are married); it is the only one that works predicatively. Wedded is literary and old-fashioned; you might see it in official documents ('wedded bliss') but rarely in conversation. Marital is a formal adjective that only goes before nouns and always refers to the institution of marriage, not the person — so 'marital problems' means problems within a marriage, while 'married problems' would be ungrammatical. In short: use married for people, marital for abstract aspects of marriage, and wedded only if you want a poetic or formal tone.

married ↗weddedmarital ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • married to
  • get married
  • newly married

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Married comes from the Old French word marier, meaning 'to give a husband or wife to someone,' which traces back to the Latin maritus, a word for a husband. The figurative sense of being 'married to one's work' dates from the 1800s, extending the idea of being bound to something permanently.