mixed marriage
5
3.5
- noun
- /mɪkst ˈmɛrɪdʒ/
:
matrimonio mixto
- In recent years, the number of mixed marriages has steadily increased in urban areas.
Examples
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Do people in culturally/racially mixed marriages fully partake of each other's culture?
Blog text (10) -
Esther was a beautiful girl, and she did the best she could, but it was a mixed marriage.
Fiction book (1993) -
You know how she feels about mixed marriages!
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Well, I finally convinced him that these mixed marriages just never work out.
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In the period after the American Revolution, the children of these mixed marriages reached maturity.
Academic text (1990) -
But mixed marriages just don't work.
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In Ascension Parish, the idea of a mixed marriage involved a Protestant and a Catholic.
Fiction book (2002) -
In many cases, mixed marriages bring the contrast between Jewish and non-Jewish practice into family encounters as well.
Academic text (1999) -
Old Mrs. Russell, a devout Presbyterian, had disinherited her daughter for entering into a mixed marriage with a Lutheran.
Fiction book (1994) -
A key area of work is to remove the stigma from people of mixed ethnicity and from mixed marriages by creating a common history for all Rwandans.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
3
4.4
Marriage between people from different groups like tribes or races
How Restrictive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'mixed' (composed of different kinds) + 'marriage' (a marital union) clearly yields a union between people of different backgrounds. This pattern is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'matrimonio mixto', French 'mariage mixte'), so a B1 learner who knows both words will generally infer the MWE meaning, though specific scope (race, religion, culture) may require context.
Etymology
The phrase mixed marriage comes from the image of mixed things, like colours or foods, being joined together in one marriage. That's why it means 'a marriage between people from different racial, religious, or cultural backgrounds'.