noun
- Plural of hypergamy; instances or practices of marrying into a social class or status higher than one's own.
Usage: formal; sociology
Examples
- Historians have documented numerous hypergamies among merchant families seeking to elevate their social standing.
- The study examined patterns of hypergamies in Victorian society.
- Such hypergamies were often arranged to strengthen family alliances.
- Economic mobility sometimes enabled hypergamies that would have been impossible in earlier generations.