a married woman, especially when considered in relation to her partner in marriage.
a woman (archaic or dial., except in idioms).
old wives' tale.
a man's partner in marriage; a married woman
an archaic or dialect word for woman
to marry (a woman)
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.
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.
before 900; Middle English, Old English wīf woman; cognate with Dutch wijf, German Weib, Old Norse vīf
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A total of $25 million has come from OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna Brockman.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
“My wife probably learned this many years ago,” he says wryly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Reiff was just 35 at the time, traveling with his pregnant wife.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Gorgeous, accomplished wife who was induced to set her career aside for her husband’s ambitions?
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
He eventually traveled with his wife and five children as a family singing group, bearing the message of God’s love throughout Europe and the Middle East.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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
Both have beautiful wives with impressive careers of their own.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
Those merry wives aren’t actually all that merry about the state of their marriages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
That legacy helps explain why in a male-dominated sport, men direct their hopes upward and outward—to mothers, wives, grandmothers and the Virgin herself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
He explained that he was the product of a happy polygamous family - his father had three wives and he was the last born of 22 children.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
There were very few couples dining in the main room, but the bar was crammed with young Marine officers, their wives, and their dates.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
"I'm sore offended in the lad I'm wifed to."
From Blind Man's Lantern by Schelling, George Luther
From her perspective, all-powerful cosmic beings have no business wifing up with mortals.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2025
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.
