Bigamic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing the state of being involved in two marriages simultaneously; pertaining to or characteristic of a situation where a person is legally married to more than one partner at the same time; relating to marriage plurality involving two spouses
2. Referring to the condition of holding two matrimonial bonds concurrently; connected with or indicating the occurrence of two simultaneous legal marriages; denoting a dual marital status involving multiple spouses
3. Indicating the circumstance of simultaneous involvement in two wedlock relationships; associated with or describing the act of having two lawful husbands or wives concurrently; expressing a form of marital arrangement involving two marital unions simultaneously

Etymology: Bigamy once meant more than the modern crime. In medieval canon law, a man who remarried after his first wife died could be called a bigamist, because the term counted successive marriages, not only overlapping ones. The word is built from the Latin prefix "bi-", meaning two, and the Greek "gamos", meaning marriage, passing into English through Medieval Latin "bigamia" and Old French. The suffix "-ic" turns the noun into an adjective for whatever involves or resembles bigamy. "Bigamic" is uncommon in everyday speech and appears mostly in legal and formal writing.

Synonyms: polygamous, monogamous (contextual antonym)

Antonyms: monogamous, single-married