doma

IPA/dəmˈa/
IPA/dəmˈæ/

doma — noun

1. a US federal law from 1996. It said that, for the national government, marriage

1.名詞
釋義

a US federal law from 1996. It said that, for the national government, marriage could only be between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court later ruled parts of it invalid, and the law is no longer in use.

例句

Congress passed DOMA in 1996, limiting federal marriage benefits to opposite-sex couples.

abbreviation used with no article; functions as a proper noun

Under DOMA, government agencies refused to recognize same-sex marriages from states where they were legal.

用法筆記

DOMA is always written in capital letters. It can be used with or without the article 'the' (DOMA was passed / the DOMA era). The law was enacted in 1996 and effectively ended after the Supreme Court rulings in United States v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).

常見錯誤

❌The DOMA Act was controversial.
✅DOMA was controversial.
💡DOMA already contains 'Act', so 'DOMA Act' is redundant.
❌DOMA stands for Defense of Marriage Act.' (when used in running text — this is the expansion, not a usage error but a common confusion).
✅Under DOMA, same-sex spouses could not receive federal benefits.
💡Use DOMA as a simple noun referring to the law, not as a placeholder for its full name.