The definition of marriage is the hottest topic in US news
lately. My favorite place for looking up definitions of English
words is, unsurprisingly, the Merriam-Webster dictionary. And
indeed, the editors of M-W’s website noticed the public interest
in the definition of marriage, and here’s what they had to write
about it: The word became the subject of renewed scrutiny as the
Supreme Court heard arguments in cases seeking to overturn
California’s ban on gay marriage and the federal government’s
Defense of Marriage Act. Marriage has become a controversial
definition, although its original sense – “the state of being
united to a person of the opposite sex” – has not changed.
However, because the word is used in phrases such as “same-sex
marriage” and “gay marriage” (by proponents and opponents
alike), a second definition – “the state of being united to a
person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a
traditional marriage” – was added to the dictionary to provide
an accurate picture of the word’s curre