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

French-American author Lauren Elkin, who writes on art and culture, said a mythology pervaded that she was "this reclusive spinster that never left her house and lived at home with her cat making her paintings".

From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026

Regarded in her time as "a reclusive spinster that never left her house", she was determined to be free to pursue a life of artistic expression.

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

The house we lost was built in 1913 for a spinster heiress named Helen T. Longstreth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2025

It was the nasal voice of Miss Grybas, the spinster teacher from school.

From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys

The closest I have found have been eccentric spinsters and ambivalent parents, in a long line from Doris Lessing and DH Lawrence, Barbara Pym and Rachel Cusk.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2020

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

From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2017

Considered spinsters back East, both Curtis and Stanley married younger men out West.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2015

It’s a message that doesn’t exactly allay the anxieties the book claims to be militating against—namely that we spinsters aren’t choosing our fates, we’re just losers in the marriage market.

From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2015

For the greater number of her twenty-nine years, Bibi Haldar suffered from an ailment that baffled family, friends, priests, palmists, spinsters, gem therapists, prophets, and fools.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri