Single doesn't necessarily have anything to do with marriage.
A single person just isn't in a romantic relationship. It's possible to be both unmarried and not single because you may, for example, have a girlfriend/boyfriend. It's not your wife/husband, so you're not married. You are in a romantic relationship, so you aren't single either.
When I hear the word divorced, I assume the person isn't married now, but they were in the past.
Of course, you can have been divorced, remarried, and currently still married with your second spouse, but I wouldn't call you divorced in that case.
I would say that the antonyms of 'married' were 'single' and 'unmarried'. I don't think 'divorced' is a true antonym.
Not only is it possible to be married and divorced at the same time, it's actually a pretty common occurrence
The verbs are far closer to being antonyms, in my opinion.. One can be taken to mean 'to begin married life' and the other 'to end married life'.
What do you mean by 'technically speaking'?
I assume I mean the same as you when you use the word, as you did when you said "There are no 'true' antonyms or 'perfect' antonyms".
Either you're married or you're not. If you're not married, you're single.Not a teacher
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I'd say divorced is closer to being an antonym of married than single is. I think the perfect antonym would be unmarried.
Single doesn't necessarily have anything to do with marriage. A single person just isn't in a romantic relationship. It's possible to be both unmarried and not single because you may, for example, have a girlfriend/boyfriend. It's not your wife/husband, so you're not married. You are in a romantic relationship, so you aren't single either.
When I hear the word divorced, I assume the person isn't married now, but they were in the past. Of course, you can have been divorced, remarried, and currently still married with your second spouse, but I wouldn't call you divorced in that case.
I can see it both ways. Before I was married, I always said I was single, even if I was in an exclusive relationship. It's true that I'd qualify it: "but I have a girlfriend," "but I'm attached."Only 'unmarried' works for me.
People in registered civil partnerships or permanently living together in committed relationships can't be considered (nor would they describe themselves) as single.
The US used to have that in some states. I don't think we have them anymore. There's common law marriage in some states. But then you're married whether you like it or not.In the UK, civil partnerships were a halfway house on the journey to marital equality- they confer the legal rights of marriage without calling it a marriage. We have marital equality, but they didn't change the possibility to choose civil partnerships.
Divorced is one subset of single, but it's not the only one. So it's not an antonym of married.
The US used to have that in some states. I don't think we have them anymore. There's common law marriage in some states. But then you're married whether you like it or not.
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