monogamy

monogamy

Zoology the practice of having only one mate

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

monogamy

a MARRIAGE rule permitting only one partner to either sex. It may include prohibitions on remarriage, but where it does not the terms ‘serial monogamy’ or ‘serial POLYGAMY’ are sometimes used.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

monogamy

[mə′näg·ə·mē]

(anthropology)

Marriage to only one person at a time.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Monogamy

 

in animals, a condition existing between the sexes by which the male mates with one particular female for a relatively long period of time and usually participates in caring for the offspring. Most birds, including swans, storks, eagles, and vultures, have a single mate for several years or, in some cases, for life. Other birds mate for only one season; they separate after rearing the fledglings (for example, geese), immediately after nest building, or before egg laying (many ducks). Among mammals, the ape has a single mate for several years; wolves, arctic foxes, common foxes, badgers, ermines, and beavers rarely couple for more than one season. Monogamous animals include those insects and other invertebrates in which both sexes (or only the males) die soon after a single mating (the females die after egg laying).

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.