Boyfriend · GirlfriendCohabitation · CasualRomantic friendship · Sexual partner

Friendship · KinshipMonogamy · Same-sex relationship · Non-monogamy · Polyamory · Polyfidelity · Polygamy ·

Mistress (lover) · Cicisbeo · Concubinage · Courtesan ·

Romantic relationship eventsBonding · Breaking up · Courtship · Dating · Divorce · Infidelity · Mating · Meet market  · Romance · Separation · Singles event  · Transgressing · Wedding

Feelings and emotionsAffinity · Attachment · Compersion · Intimacy · Jealousy · Limerence · Love · Passion · Platonic love · Polyamory · Psychology of sexual monogamy

Human practicesBride price (Dower · Dowry) · Hypergamy · Infidelity · Sexuality

Relationship abuseChild abuse · Elder abuse · Dating abuse · Infidelity · Spousal abuse ·

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may also be called matrimony.

People marry for many reasons, including one or more of the following: legal, social, emotional, economical, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of commitment.

Marriage practices are very diverse across cultures, yet almost every known society has had some form of marriage between a man and a woman. In some societies an individual is limited to being in one such couple at a time (monogamy), while other cultures allow a male to have more than one wife (polygyny) or, less commonly, a female to have more than one husband (polyandry). Some societies also allow marriage between two males or two females. Societies frequently have other restrictions on marriage based on the ages of the participants, pre-existing kinship, and membership in religious or other social groups.