Marry or mary?
marry is a verb meaning “To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife”; mary is a noun meaning “Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”)”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) mary is about 2.4 times as common as marry.
What is the difference between marry and mary?
| marry | mary | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, interjection | noun, interjection |
| Meaning | To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife To enter into marriage with one another | Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”) Alternative form of marry (“indeed, in truth”) |
| Example | Neither of her daughters showed any desire to marry | none recorded |
| Forms | marries, marrying, married | marys |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmæɹi/ /ˈmɛɹi/ | /ˈmɛɚ.i/ /ˈmɛɹ.i/ |
| In writing | 25 times per million words | 60 times per million words |
Sources: marry and mary in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of marry and mary
marry
- 1
To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife
Neither of her daughters showed any desire to marry
- 2
To enter into marriage with one another
Jack and Jenny married soon after they met
- 3
To take as husband or wife
In some cultures, it is acceptable for an uncle to marry his niece
- 4
To arrange for the marriage of; to give away as wife or husband
He was eager to marry his daughter to a nobleman
- 5
To unite in wedlock or matrimony; to perform the ceremony of joining spouses; to bring about a marital union according to the laws or customs of a place
A justice of the peace will marry Jones and Smith
- 6
To acquire by marriage
I wanted to marry wealth and power, and got both
- 7
To join or connect. See also marry up
There’s a big gap here. These two parts don’t marry properly
- 8
To unite; to join together into a close union
The attempt to marry medieval plainsong with speed metal produced interesting results
mary
- 1
Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”)
- 2
Alternative form of marry (“indeed, in truth”)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, marry or mary?
marry appears 25 times per million words; mary 60 times per million words.
marry 25 times per million wordsmary 60 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).