Meaning of concubinage in English

concubinage

noun [ U ]

/kɑːnˈkjuː.bə.nɪdʒ/ uk

/kɒnˈkjuː.bɪ.nɪdʒ/

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the practice of having concubines:

Communist revolutionaries banned bigamy and concubinage in China.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Marriage, cohabitation & other relationships

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(Definition of concubinage from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of concubinage

concubinage

It banned arranged marriages, concubinage and child betrothal.

From CNN

Second, in concubinage, this is the sole purpose of the union.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Western missionaries introduced schools for women only, led campaigns against footbinding, and criticized arranged marriages and concubinage.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A slightly different example reinforces the legal distinction between marriage and concubinage.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This assumption rests merely on the meaning of “concubinage”; this is its understood purpose.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Furthermore, this mention of simony and concubinage also points to a community of affluent clerics and archons who are able to disburse funds in such a manner.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

So little was it expected that the tax upon concubinage soon became a component part of the celibate system.

From Project Gutenberg

Concubinage is less general than formerly, but the marriage covenant is by no means respected, nor is chastity much esteemed.

From Project Gutenberg

There seems to have been a slight distinction between marriage and concubinage.

From Project Gutenberg

But it is not from concubinage, but from marriage that all justice, all right proceeds.

From Project Gutenberg

This has led to other irregularities, such as reckless, continual, and fraudulent gambling, and concubinage.

From Project Gutenberg

There is a marked distinction between concubinage and wedlock; because the latter, besides consent, has its own ceremonies, as we shall later see.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet the family and concubinage obtain side by side.

From Project Gutenberg

Now, marriage is the rule and concubinage the exception.

From Project Gutenberg

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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