housewife
Americannoun
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Sometimes Offensive. a married woman who manages her own household, especially as her principal occupation.
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British. a sewing box; a small case or box for needles, thread, etc.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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a woman, typically a married woman, who keeps house, usually without having paid employment
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Also called: hussy. huswife. a small sewing kit issued to soldiers
Sensitive Note
Most people, married or unmarried, find the term housewife perfectly acceptable. But it is sometimes perceived as insulting, perhaps because it implies a lowly status (“She’s just a housewife”) or because it defines an occupation in terms of a woman's relation to a man. Homemaker is a fairly common substitute.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of housewife
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English hus(e)wif; see origin at house, wife
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:
"The loss of the leader is heavier than losing our parents," Hoda, a 35-year-old housewife, told AFP news agency.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Even before her husband’s death and her takeover as CEO of TPUSA, she was a highly-educated career woman only playing at being the demure housewife for his audiences.
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026
A 31-year-old housewife and mother-of-one who lives nearby said the incident had terrified the neighbourhood.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
In this brief, eerie novel by the Indian writer Anita Desai, the daughter of an unhappy Indian housewife learns that her mother had once dreamed of becoming a painter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
To encounter ‘simple’ people—a tradesman, a housewife, a farmer—describing their spiritual lives in detail amazed me.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
Tradwife content whitewashes history, but an honest look shows that contempt for housewives was a widespread theme in the past.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2026
German defence giant Rheinmetall on Sunday sought to smooth over a row caused by comments from its boss comparing Ukrainian factories producing drones to "housewives" making weapons in their kitchens.
From Barron's ● Mar. 29, 2026
Credited with helping to ignite second-wave feminism in the 1960s, the book claimed that many middle-class, college-educated women were dissatisfied being confined to their roles as housewives and mothers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2025
Loderick-Peace adds that several existing housewives told her the most important thing was to "just be yourself" - and all the London cast insist they have put their authentic selves on screen.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2025
The block was safe to play on under the watchful eye of housewives who sat in the windows in the summer, catching whatever breeze there was in those days before air-conditioning.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
