(n.) The having of a plurality of wives or husbands at the same time; usually, the marriage of a man to more than one woman, or the practice of having several wives, at the same time; -- opposed to monogamy; as, the nations of the East practiced polygamy. See the Note under Bigamy, and cf. Polyandry.
(n.) The state or habit of having more than one mate.
(n.) The condition or state of a plant which bears both perfect and unisexual flowers.
Example Sentences:
(1) Polygamy and Islam were more prevalent among the EA than the booked.
(2) Gene Schaerr, who represented Utah, warned that if the state could not define marriage the way it wanted, it might have to open the door to polygamy.
(3) The incidence of polygamy was higher among the rejectors, and rejectors' husbands had more children from their other wives.
(4) Current family adversity in terms of unstable parental union, paternal use of alcohol, polygamy and sibship size operated by interactive or additive effect.
(5) This is underscored by our current inability to explain satisfactorily several patterns including the relative significance of floating, geographic biases in the incidence of cooperative breeding, sexual asymmetries in delayed dispersal, the relationship between delayed dispersal leading to helping behavior and cooperative polygamy, and the rarity of the co-occurrence of helpers and floaters within the same population.
(6) The vehemence of Conservative divisions over same-sex marriage were exposed when one Tory MP said it would undermine "normal marriage", another questioned whether polygamy would be legalised next, and a third claimed that European judges will soon force the Church of England to allow same-sex marriages against its will.
(7) 'He was sitting directly in front of me, with three wives on one side and four on the other, and I began to sing "polygamy is the worst of all things".
(8) It’s not a conservative society in a stereotyped way.” She has campaigned against issues such as polygamy, domestic violence and so-called “honour” killings.
(9) He supports polygamy and a ban on gambling and alcohol, and wants to build Europe's largest mosque - and he leads a large private militia which is accused of savage brutality in Chechnya.
(10) Further, it is shown that the human species rapidly evolved its life-extending mutations because of the special circumstances afforded by the subdivision of the species into small semi-isolated (genetically) tribes of 10-100 individuals in which polygamy was the key factor in rapid incorporation of life- and well-being-extending new features.
(11) The total fertility of 6.2 was high but lower than the national average possibly because of the high rates of polygamy and primary infertility and the long periods of amenorrhoea and breast feeding which occurred after delivery.
(12) Sexually-transmitted diseases such as vaginitis (80%) were caused by polygamy, prostitution, and promiscuity, HIV serodiagnosis could not be performed because of a lack of equipment.
(13) We were told gay marriage was the slippery slope to polygamy, bestiality and incest.
(14) Rather, the data show that polygamy and monogamy select women with different social characteristics, which are associated with different rates of cumulative fertility.
(15) The contributions of such factors as rural-urban migration, birth order, family size, polygamy and genetics to the etiology of major mental disorders in this population require further investigations.
(16) Dr Matthew Offord, MP for Hendon, asked if the government was going to introduce other forms of marriage, such as polygamy.
(17) It is possible that multiple marriages and polygamy played a significant role in the bacterial colonisation of the endometrium in the Hausa-Fulani population of Zaria, Nigeria.
(18) The elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, rescinded some of these rights: restrictions on polygamy were lifted; a reduction of the marriage age was proposed; women's right to seek divorce was limited.
(19) One local mayor was roundly criticised earlier this year after he warned legalising gay marriage would open the way to legalising polygamy or incest.
(20) Polygamy is fairly widespread in Chechnya, explained partly by local traditions and partly by a shortage of menfolk after all the tragedies the Chechens have experienced in recent decades.
Polygyny
Definition:
(n.) The state or practice of having several wives at the same time; marriage to several wives.
Example Sentences:
(1) The custom of polygyny practised by these people enabled the analysis of associations between full-siblings and half-siblings.
(2) The hypothesis that polygyny is associated with higher fertility than monogamy was evaluated.
(3) Polygyny is common and men control most of the resources.
(4) The hypothesis that the centrosome is maternally inherited was tested during parthenogenesis, polyspermy, and polygyny as well as after recovery from microtubule inhibition at first mitosis.
(5) The high frequency of polygyny in Texas indicates that the fire ant problem in the state is much greater than previously realized.
(6) Male mammals show a diverse array of mating bonds, including obligate monogamy, unimale and group polygyny and promiscuity.
(7) Traditional attitudes towards marriage and sexuality affect urban behavior in the extent of marital stability, the frequency of polygyny, and the emotional bond between spouses.
(8) The frequency of polygyny varied somewhat with geographic region, but the pattern was generally unrelated to habitat and environmental conditions.
(9) These results suggest that the expansion of the cerebral cortex in anthropoids may be associated with terrestriality and polygyny.
(10) The postindependence marriage codes have attempted to give young women more say in choosing a husband, to regulate the practice of bride price, and to limit the practice of polygyny.
(11) Further, the structure of agricultural development has resulted in changes in women's participation in agriculture and polygyny rates, which have had impacts on birth rates.
(12) Polygyny was discovered at 54% of the infested sites.
(13) However, in Nigeria polygyny cannot wholly explain length of postpartum taboo following child birth on the ground that competition among cowives to out do one another in child-bearing results in a tendency of higher fertility and hence shorter postpartum taboo in polygynous households than that in monogamous families.
(14) Data were collected on age, age at marriage, menopause, monogamy or polygyny, total number of children born, number of miscarriages, number of stillbirths, number of children currently living, and contraception.
(15) The hypothesis was judged to be useless because 1) fertility rates are the product of multiple influences; 2) it is too difficult to separate out these multiple influences, given the variability involved in polygynous practices and the inadequates of the data; and 3) the influence of polygyny on fertility is too slight to take into account.
(16) Hence, the tendency for women in polygynous households to adhere more strictly to rules and taboos relating to postpartum abstinence could be associated to the changing roles of women as they affect their responsibility with respect to the maintenance and training of their children rather than to the institution of polygyny per se.
(17) Although the pharaoh's ant offers relatively good possibilities for the selection of resistance on account of the polygyny, the duration of generations in the range of a whole year under field conditions and the isogeny of the colonies diminished the development of resistance.
(18) Factors of the material environment (availability of water and electricity in the residence), size of a household and number of wage earners in it are pervasive and suggest a polarity between archaic elements in the society (low material comfort, polygyny, absence of contraception) and the more forward looking (monogamy, tertiary occupations).
(19) These include the male's greater aggressiveness, the preponderance of polygyny over polyandry, and differences in the antecedents of jealousy.
(20) polyspermy, polygyny, asynchrony between male and female pronucleus development, and preactivation of cytokinesis.