annulment
uh-NUL-munt
/əˈnʌl.mənt/
A legal ruling that declares a marriage null and void, as if it had never legally existed.
Unlike divorce, which dissolves a valid marriage, an annulment retroactively erases a marriage due to a defect present at its inception (such as fraud or bigamy).
The story behind the word. Annulment comes from the Late Latin 'annullare', meaning 'to bring to nothing', which is constructed from 'ad-' (to) and 'nullus' (none, nothing). It entered English via Old French, retaining the legal sense of reducing a contract or union to absolute zero.
Word relationships
- nullification: Nullification is a general term for making something void, whereas annulment is specifically used for marriages or legal contracts.
- invalidation: Invalidation refers to making something legally ineffective, but lacks the specific retroactive 'never existed' connotation of annulment.
- ratification: Ratification is the formal validation of an agreement or union that might otherwise have been voidable.
Commonly confused with
- dissolution: Dissolution terminates a valid marriage from that day forward, while annulment declares that a valid marriage never existed in the first place.
Word family
- annul (verb): To declare invalid or void.
Collocations
- seek an annulment
- grant an annulment
- civil annulment
- decree of annulment
Example sentences
- "Henry VIII sought an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, claiming it was never valid under church law." A historical legal proceeding regarding royal marriages.
- "She filed for an annulment after discovering her husband was still legally married to someone else." A modern civil law context.
Memory hook
An 'annulment' makes a marriage 'null' and void—reducing it to 'nothing' (null). Annulment = Make it null.
When not to use
Do not use annulment for a standard divorce where the marriage was valid but simply broke down over time.
Fun facts
- In legal terms, an annulled marriage is treated as if it were a blank slate, meaning the parties technically revert to 'single' rather than 'divorced' status.
Related words
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