marry
/ˈmæɹi/verb
marry is a verb meaning “To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-A-R-R-Y and has 2 syllables, and it appears 25 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does marry mean?
verb
- 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.
interjection
- 1
obsoleteA term of asseveration: indeed!, in truth!
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce marry?
- UK /ˈmæɹi/
- /ˈmæɹi/
- /ˈmɛɹi/
Marry has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ne-marry.ogg, En-us-marry.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of marry
- marries present, singular, he/she/it
- marrying participle, present
- married participle, past
- mary
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is marry?
Marry appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Words people confuse with marry
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: mary.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Marry in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | se marier , être marié , épouser , marier, accorder en mariage, accorder pour épouse |
| German | heiraten , in die Ehe geben , verheiraten |
| Portuguese | casar , dar em casamento, dar em matrimônio |
| Spanish | casar, casarse , casarse con , dar en matrimonio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does marry come from?
From Middle English marien, from Anglo-Norman marïer, from Latin marītāre (“to wed”), from marītus (“husband, suitor”), from mās (“man, male”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *méryos (“young man”), same source as Sanskrit मर्य (márya, “suitor, young man”). Compare its feminine derivatives: Welsh morwyn (“girl”), merch (“daughter”), Crimean Gothic marzus (“wedding”), Ancient Greek μεῖραξ (meîrax, “boy; girl”), Lithuanian marti̇̀ (“bride”), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 (maⁱriia, “yeoman”).) Displaced native Old English hīwian.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).