wife
noun
a married woman, especially when considered in relation to her partner in marriage.
wife
1 American
[wahyf]
/ waɪf /
noun
-
wives
plural
-
a married woman, especially when considered in relation to her partner in marriage.
-
a woman (archaic or dial., except in idioms).
old wives' tale.
verb (used with or without object)
wifed,
wifing
idioms
-wife
2
American
wife
British
/ waɪf /
noun
-
a man's partner in marriage; a married woman
-
an archaic or dialect word for woman
-
to marry (a woman)
wife
More Idioms
Usage
What is a basic definition of wife? A wife is a married woman. The word wife is often used when a woman’s marital status is important to the current topic. For example, a man might explain to a salesperson that he is looking for a present for his wife, which is a lot more helpful than saying he is buying a gift for “a woman.”The plural of wife is wives. A man who is married is called a husband. A woman whose marital partner has died is called a widow.
- Real-life examples: Queen Isabella I of Castille was the wife of King Ferdinand II of Aragon. King Henry VIII infamously had six wives (but one at a time!). If you are married to a woman, then she is your wife.
- Used in a sentence: My uncle has never been married and says he has no interest in finding a wife.
- Used in a sentence: The documentary explored the lives of prison wives.
What does -wife mean? The combining form -wife is used like a suffix to mean “wife" or, more generally, "woman." It’s used in a variety of terms, especially in reference to professions, but it’s relatively uncommon except for in a few words. The form -wife comes from Old English wīf, meaning “woman.” Wīf was eventually combined with mann, which was then a gender-neutral term for an adult person, to create wīfmann, the source of the modern word woman. Want to know more? Check out our Words That Use entry for -woman. What are variants of -wife?Just as the word wives is used as a plural form of the word wife, the ending -wives is often used as a plural form of -wife, as in midwives.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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wifedomnoun
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wifehoodnoun
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wifelessnessnoun
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wifelinessnoun
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wifelessadjective
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wifelikeadjective
-
wifelyadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of wife
before 900; Middle English, Old English wīf woman; cognate with Dutch wijf, German Weib, Old Norse vīf
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Then, on Sunday, Huang acknowledged in a letter to staff that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized for violating his family’s and his employees’ trust.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026
“He was always a lot of fun,” said his wife, Venetia Lai.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2026
Stacy Keach, the prolific and acclaimed American tough-guy actor who thrived in theatre, film and television, and whose roles ranged from Hamlet to detective Mike Hammer, has died, his wife said Wednesday.
From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2026
Phil Bohn and his wife, Abbey, were deep into house hunting in Pittsburgh this June when a fortuitously timed email landed in his inbox.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2026
Lemuel knew Lyman, his wife and daughter; but the rest of the company were strangers, including Mr. Calvin Brown, Mrs. Leah Fish, her daughter Lizzie, and Mrs. Fox with her daughter Kate.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Oys′ter-wench, -wife, -wom′an, a woman who vends oysters.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various
Pope Leo XIV told men to treat their wives with respect Sunday, as he concluded the first leg of his tour of Latin America, which is plagued by gender-based violence.
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2026
Other members, including women, said wives were happier with the idea of their husbands whiling away the hours in a men-only environment rather than a mixed bar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
"About 60% of husbands and wives in the sample said they exercised, but only about a third exercised together," Yorgason said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
Rescue efforts were launched after the wives of both men called the authorities, having not heard from them for hours.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
My frantic search uncovered a plethora of random objects—clothing, shoe brushes, buttonhooks, photographs of wives and sweethearts, tins of wax and pastes—things that seemed so ordinary, so human.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
"I'm sore offended in the lad I'm wifed to."
From Blind Man's Lantern by George Luther Schelling
From her perspective, all-powerful cosmic beings have no business wifing up with mortals.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2025
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
