From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbigamybig‧a‧my /ˈbɪɡəmi/ noun [uncountable] SCCthe crime of being married to two people at the same time → monogamy, polygamy —bigamist noun [countable] —bigamous adjective
Examples from the Corpus
bigamy• Perhaps he was leading a double life-perhaps I should warn Andrea before she found herself committing bigamy.• For the male pied flycatcher, bigamy is obviously a successful strategy, but it also requires quite complex behavioural adaptations.• Andrew Jackson, the first president from the western frontier, was unjustly accused of bigamy and derided as an unschooled ignoramus.• The male has fulfilled his ambition of bigamy at the expense of a female.• Green, who has five wives and 30 children, had been charged with four counts of bigamy.• Various new definitions of bigamy have been suggested, including cohabitation for more than six months and a partnership that produces children.• One of these, Tolson, was a case on bigamy.• He espoused them both, simultaneously, in a kind of philosophical bigamy.Origin bigamy (1200-1300) Medieval Latin bigamia, from Latin bi- ( → BI-) + Late Latin -gamia (-GAMY) 