dowry
Americannoun
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Also the money, goods, or estate that a wife brings to her husband at marriage.
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Archaic. a widow's dower.
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a natural gift, endowment, talent, etc.
noun
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the money or property brought by a woman to her husband at marriage
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(esp formerly) a gift made by a man to his bride or her parents
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Christianity a sum of money required on entering certain orders of nuns
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a natural talent or gift
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obsolete a widow's dower
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dowry
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English dowerie, from Anglo-French douarie, from Medieval Latin dōtārium. See dot 2, -ary
Explanation
In some cultures, the bride or her family pays a certain amount of money or property to the groom when a couple is married. This payment is called a dowry. Traditionally, a woman's family offered a dowry to potential husbands in order to make the match more attractive to the man and his family. The word dowry can actually mean "payment," but it can also refer to whatever property or savings a woman herself brings into a marriage. The Latin word dotare is the root of dowry, and it means "to endow or to portion out."
Vocabulary lists containing dowry
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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:
If she can collect the dowry from Charlie, she and Stanley can sail to Australia to escape the police and live happily ever after Down Under.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2025
But the young man said he was grateful that since he began mining five years ago, he has been able to save a little money for a dowry and is now married with children.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2025
Parents of girls are known to take out huge loans or even sell their land and house to meet dowry demands.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2025
"So many of my friends have had to leave school, or never been to school because someone paid a dowry to marry them, so their fathers had married them off," she says.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025
Normally, the husband’s family would give the wife’s family a dowry of cows, but in this case, John agreed to send money worth the equivalent of eighty cows.
From "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" by John Bul Dau
But instead of navigating society balls and dowries, Pickett's modern Emma is poking her nose into her friends' online dating profiles, having returned home after failing her exams at Oxford University.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2025
The men in Malaysia forfeit dowries and often send money to the brides’ parents.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024
Officially, dowries are illegal now, and daughters are supposed to inherit alongside sons.
From New York Times ● Jun. 8, 2022
Women retained the ownership of their dowries at marriage, could initiate divorce, and controlled their own inheritances.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
The teacher’s husband’s sisters waiting for their dowries.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
