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In psychologyEdit

Homogamy in psychology is the tendency to marry people who are psychologically or physically similar to ourselves.[citation needed]

In sociologyEdit

Homogamy is marriage between individuals who are, in some culturally important way, similar to each other. Homogamy may be based on socio-economic status, class, gender, ethnicity, or religion.[1] It is a form of assortative mating.


Homogamy has been suggested as a term for same-sex marriage or other union, and heterogamy as a term for marriage or union between people of different sexes.[2] [3]

In biologyEdit

Homogamy is used in biology in two separate senses, both involving actual or potential matings. Inbreeding can be referred to as homogamy.[4] More often, homogamy refers to the maturation of male and female reproductive organs at the same time, which is also known as simultaneous or synchronous hermaphrodism and is the antonym of dichogamy.

See alsoEdit


  1. Homogamy. Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences.
  2. "Homogamy Unmodified," by Philip N. Cohen. Forthcoming article in Journal of Family Theory and Review.
  3. "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature": A Revised History of Homosexuality & Mormonism, 1840-1980 (2004) by Connell O'Donovan.
  4. Walker, P.M.B. (ed.) 1988. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Science and Technology. W. R. Chambers Ltd. and Cambridge University Press.

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