Outmarriages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The unions that occur between individuals from different cultural, ethnic, or religious backgrounds
2. Marriages established outside one's own group, often with partners from diverse traditions or beliefs
3. The act of forming a marital bond with someone from a different community, emphasizing cross-cultural connections

Etymology: "Outmarriage" is a plain compound built from "out-" and "marriage," and the plural "outmarriages" simply counts instances of it. The prefix "out-" here works in the sense of "beyond" or "outside" a group, so the word describes marriage that goes beyond the boundaries of one's own community. The word is most often set beside "exogamy," the anthropological term for marrying outside a defined group, which shares the same idea of looking past one's own circle. The meaning carries a particular emphasis. Where "exogamy" is a neutral term used in anthropology, "outmarriage" is usually used when discussing cross-cultural or cross-community unions, often with attention to how such marriages connect different groups. The word's value lies in that focus on connection rather than on rules or prohibitions.