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 polygyny - the marriage of a man to several women - is allowed in South Africa, such relationships are usually registered as customary marriages and are not celebrated in church.

From BBC • May 3, 2025

To compensate for the disappearance of so many young men, who were the laborers most preferred by plantation owners, many African ethnic groups adopted polygyny, allowing men to take multiple wives.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Adult relationships vary in form across societies and include not only the type most common around the world today — heterosexual monogamy — but also same-sex marriage, nonmarital unions, polyamory, polygyny and polyandry.

From Washington Post • Jun. 17, 2022

Coontz points to past Native American societies that occasionally engaged in what’s known as sororal polygyny, in which a man married to one woman might also marry her sister, perhaps after the sister’s husband died.

From Slate • Jan. 30, 2012

What lowers the moral level of polygyny is especially the barbarous system of marriage by purchase, by which the women become slaves burdened with heavy labor, and are in a state of legal dependence.

From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Forel, Auguste