the offense of marrying someone while you have a living spouse from whom no valid divorce has occurred having two spouses at the same time
The offense of having two husbands or wives at the same time, the one de jure and the other de facto 1 Bishop, Mar & Div § 296 Strictly speaking, bigamy means "twice married", as its derivative shows This was never an offense at common law; it was made an offense by the canonists Polygamy is the proper term; but, by long usage, bigamy has come to mean the state of a man who has two wives, or a woman who has two husbands, at the same time 4 Bl Com 163; 81 Pa 432, 430; 1 law Quar Rev 474-76 (1885)
Bigamy is the crime of marrying a person when you are already legally married to someone else. the crime of being married to two people at the same time monogamy, polygamy polygamy (bigamia, from bi- ( BI-) + -gamia ( -GAMY))