From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpolygamypo‧lyg‧a‧my /pəˈlɪɡəmi/ noun [uncountable] SSFthe practice of having more than one husband or wife at the same time → bigamy, monogamy —polygamous adjective polygamous societies
Examples from the Corpus
polygamy• First, women most commonly seek monogamous marriage-even in societies that allow polygamy.• Institutions such as polygamy are seen by Engels as mere variants on the institution of monogamy.• The Book of Mormon itself had condemned polygamy.• Sometimes, however, polygamy could be liberating for a woman because the burden of household duties was shared.• Federal legislation attacking Mormon polygamy served as a ruse for completing the absorption of the Mormon religious state into the Union.• No hunter-gatherer society supports more than occasional polygamy, and the institution of marriage is virtually universal.• That left him with one explanation for the rarity of polygamy in sparrows: The senior wives do not stand for it.• In 1988, political power, far from being a ticket to polygamy, was jeopardized by any suggestion of infidelity. 