[Vocabulary] Antonym of married

[MMMANI52]

Which is the correct antonym of the word 'married', is it 'divorced' or 'single'?

 

[jutfrank]

Both.

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
------

I'd say divorced is closer to being an antonym of married than single is. I think the perfect antonym would be unmarried.

Single doesn't necessarily have anything to do with marriage. A single person just isn't in a romantic relationship. It's possible to be both unmarried and not single because you may, for example, have a girlfriend/boyfriend. It's not your wife/husband, so you're not married. You are in a romantic relationship, so you aren't single either.

When I hear the word divorced, I assume the person isn't married now, but they were in the past. Of course, you can have been divorced, remarried, and currently still married with your second spouse, but I wouldn't call you divorced in that case.

 

[Rover_KE]

Only 'unmarried' works for me.

People in registered civil partnerships or permanently living together in committed relationships can't be considered (nor would they describe themselves) as single.

 

[jutfrank]

There are no 'true' antonyms or 'perfect' antonyms. Semantics describes different kinds of antonymy, which depend on the sense relations between words.

In this case, married/divorced can be said to have a contradictory sense relation. That means that someone cannot be married and divorced at the same time. With respect to her status, either she's married or she's divorced—she can't be both simultaneously. The same relation holds for the contradictory pair married/single.

 

[jutfrank]

Single doesn't necessarily have anything to do with marriage.

Yes, it has everything to do with marriage when it's used to describe marital status.

A single person just isn't in a romantic relationship. It's possible to be both unmarried and not single because you may, for example, have a girlfriend/boyfriend. It's not your wife/husband, so you're not married. You are in a romantic relationship, so you aren't single either.

Right, but that's a different sense of the word single.

When I hear the word divorced, I assume the person isn't married now, but they were in the past.

Yes, exactly.

Of course, you can have been divorced, remarried, and currently still married with your second spouse, but I wouldn't call you divorced in that case.

Yes, exactly. For this reason, we can say that the sense relation of antonymy between those words is contradictory.

 

[Alexey86]

In addition to divorced and single, there is also bachelor.

 

[probus]

Not only is it possible to be married and divorced at the same time, it's actually a pretty common occurrence. While it may be hard to be simultaneously married to and divorced from the same person, even that has been achieved by the late Elizabeth Taylor.

 

[Tdol]

I would say that the antonyms of 'married' were 'single' and 'unmarried'. I don't think 'divorced' is a true antonym.

How about as verbs- to marry/divorce?

 

[jutfrank]

Not only is it possible to be married and divorced at the same time, it's actually a pretty common occurrence

Well, only in a certain sense. As an indicator of marital status, it isn't possible.

Yes, you could say that you're divorced from your ex-wife after you're remarried, but that doesn't mean you have the status of being divorced. So it really depends on the universe of discourse.

If I said to you She's divorced, you would think she's unmarried.

 

[jutfrank]

The verbs are far closer to being antonyms, in my opinion.. One can be taken to mean 'to begin married life' and the other 'to end married life'.

What do you mean by 'closer'? They simply are antonyms, technically speaking.

You seem to have an idea of a 'true' antonym. Could you elaborate?

 

[jutfrank]

What do you mean by 'technically speaking'?

According to mainstream semantics. What do you mean by 'true'?

 

[jutfrank]

I assume I mean the same as you when you use the word, as you did when you said "There are no 'true' antonyms or 'perfect' antonyms".

I really just mean to stress that the idea of antonymy in semantics reaches far past the notion that words have a 'correct' antonym, as suggested by the question in the OP. Rather, there are different kinds of antonymy, depending on specific sense relations between words in use.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Not a teacher
------

I'd say divorced is closer to being an antonym of married than single is. I think the perfect antonym would be unmarried.

Single doesn't necessarily have anything to do with marriage. A single person just isn't in a romantic relationship. It's possible to be both unmarried and not single because you may, for example, have a girlfriend/boyfriend. It's not your wife/husband, so you're not married. You are in a romantic relationship, so you aren't single either.

When I hear the word divorced, I assume the person isn't married now, but they were in the past. Of course, you can have been divorced, remarried, and currently still married with your second spouse, but I wouldn't call you divorced in that case.

Either you're married or you're not. If you're not married, you're single.

By definition, unmarried couples are pairs of single people. Love is a state of mind. Marriage is a contract.

If you're single, there are several possibilities. One is that you're divorced. Another is that you're widowed. Another is that you've never been married.

Divorced is one subset of single, but it's not the only one. So it's not an antonym of married.

So the antonyms of married are single, unmarried, and not married.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Only 'unmarried' works for me.

People in registered civil partnerships or permanently living together in committed relationships can't be considered (nor would they describe themselves) as single.

I can see it both ways. Before I was married, I always said I was single, even if I was in an exclusive relationship. It's true that I'd qualify it: "but I have a girlfriend," "but I'm attached."

And I've often heard other people in committed relationships say the same kinds of things. So I think single still holds.

On the other hand, I don't know anyone in a "registered civil partnership," so I have no idea what they say. Unmarried does seem like a safe bet.

 

[Tdol]

In the UK, civil partnerships were a halfway house on the journey to marital equality- they confer the legal rights of marriage without calling it a marriage. We have marital equality, but they didn't change the possibility to choose civil partnerships.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

In the UK, civil partnerships were a halfway house on the journey to marital equality- they confer the legal rights of marriage without calling it a marriage. We have marital equality, but they didn't change the possibility to choose civil partnerships.

The US used to have that in some states. I don't think we have them anymore. There's common law marriage in some states. But then you're married whether you like it or not.

 

[jutfrank]

Divorced is one subset of single, but it's not the only one. So it's not an antonym of married.

That's not right. That's not how antonymy works. As I've tried to explain previously, divorced is an antonym of married.

 

[emsr2d2]

I have to say that, these days, it's hard to pin this down. I don't think I would try to make any of them specific antonyms of each other (with the exception of "married" and "unmarried").

All of them are referred to as a "relationship status". When we complete a survey, or are asked (sometimes completely unnecessarily) to explain our living arrangements or status, there are usually quite a lot of options these days. For example, here were my choices in a recent survey (I don't think I've forgotten any):

Are you:
- Single and not dating
- Single and dating (not exclusive)
- In a committed relationship but not living together
- In a committed relationship and living together
- Married
- In a civil partnership
- Separated
- Divorced
- Widowed

 

[Tdol]

The US used to have that in some states. I don't think we have them anymore. There's common law marriage in some states. But then you're married whether you like it or not.

Common-law marriages are, I believe, not recognised in the UK, though lots of people think there is such a thing. (Not a lawyer)