polygyny

American  

[puh-lij-uh-nee] / pəˈlɪdʒ ə ni /

noun

1. the practice or condition of having more than one wife at one time.

2. (among male animals) the habit or system of having two or more mates, either simultaneously or successively.

3. (among social insects) the condition of having two or more functioning queens in a colony.

4. Botany. the state or condition of having many pistils or styles.

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polygyny British  

/ pəˈlɪdʒɪnɪ /

noun

1. the practice or condition of being married to more than one wife at the same time Compare polygamy

2. the practice in animals of a male mating with more than one female during one breeding season

3. the condition in flowers of having many carpels

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Other Word Forms

• polygynist
  noun
• polygynous
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of polygyny

1770–80; < Greek polygýn ( aios ) having many wives ( see poly-, gyn-) + -y ³

Example Sentences

While the tomb reveals evidence of polygyny - men having children with multiple women - it also shows that polyandry was also widespread: women having children with multiple men.

From BBC • Dec. 23, 2021

That’s why some 16 million men today can trace their ancestry back to Genghis Khan, a tyrant who pushed polygyny to its physical limits.

From Washington Post • Apr. 15, 2015

Some scholars suspect that polygyny may discourage paternal investment.

From Slate • Jan. 30, 2012

To test whether these reports of polygyny are a local or species-wide phenomenon evolutionary biologist Michael F. Hammer and colleagues at the University of Arizona published their findings in the journal PLoS Genetics.

From Scientific American • Jan. 6, 2012

Strict monogamy seems to prevail even where, as among the Aeta, polygyny is not prohibited.

From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court