spinster

American  

[spin-ster] / ˈspɪn stər /

noun

• spinsters
  plural

1. Disparaging and Offensive. a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying.

2. Chiefly Law. a woman who has never married.

3. a woman whose occupation is spinning.

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spinster British  

/ ˈspɪnstə /

noun

1. an unmarried woman regarded as being beyond the age of marriage

2. law (in legal documents) a woman who has never married Compare feme sole

3. (formerly) a woman who spins thread for her living

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Sensitive Note

The meaning “a woman beyond the usual marriageable age” is used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting. It implies negative qualities such as being fussy or undesirable. See also old maid.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• spinsterhood
  noun
• spinsterish
  adjective
• spinsterlike
  adjective
• spinsterishly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• spinsters
  plural

Etymology

Origin of spinster

1325–75; Middle English spinnestere a woman who spins. See spin, -ster

Explanation

A spinster is an older, unmarried woman. Even if you're in awe of your Aunt Sally's glamorous, single life, your grandmother might dismiss her as a spinster. Spinster originally meant "a spinner of thread," and as that was a job typically done by unmarried women, it came to have the meaning — even in legal documents — of "single woman." Another term for spinster is the equally old-fashioned sounding old maid. Either way, it means a woman who never got married. Spinster is not a word you should call anyone: it reduces single women to one detail about their lives.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spinster spinsters

But she brushed off the barbs, saying: "I am toothy, dumpy, ugly, overweight, a spinster – what the hell."

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

This image may have been reinforced by a book Augustus wrote about her after her death that painted her as "this crazy spinster lady who lived in Paris".

From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026

“I’m a geriatric pregnant spinster who puts crystals in her bra,” Helen says in an unusual moment of self-awareness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025

"Look at me," she declares to her spinster daughters in one scene.

From Salon ● May 6, 2023

They came more out of kindness than faith, giving the aging spinster a chance to recall her good old days in the tenements.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

"This is the nature of the debate on things this big, like tax reform," Ryan said."You've got pundits and spinsters and all of this spinmeisters out there, you know, confusing the public."

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2017

Between 1934 and 1939, two "nervous British spinsters" were regular visitors to the opera houses of Germany and Austria.

From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2017

Into this breach steps Bolick, offering her own story as inspiration to other spinsters, but it’s sometimes confusing how she thinks it could help.

From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2015

All of this, riveting in itself, underlines the breadth of Austen's experience of life; spinsters in vicarages know more of the human condition at first hand than might be imagined.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 8, 2013

How could we have guessed as we sat there—two middle-aged spinsters and an old man— that in place of memories were about to be given adventures such as we had never dreamed of?

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom