widower

American  

[wid-oh-er] / ˈwɪd oʊ ər /

noun

widowers plural

1. a man who has lost his spouse by death and has not remarried.

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widower British  

/ ˈwɪdəʊə /

noun

1. a man whose wife has died and who has not remarried

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• widowerhood
  noun
• widowered
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• widowers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of widower

1325–75; late Middle English ( see widow, -er ¹); replacing widow (now dial.), Old English wydewa

Explanation

If your grandmother has died, you can call your grandfather a widower, or a man whose wife is no longer living. When a man loses his wife, he becomes a widower. The equivalent name for a woman whose husband dies is a widow. In many cases, a man is only referred to as a widower if he has not remarried. Both a widow and a widower are described as being widowed. The feminine form of this word came first, from the Old English widewe. The Indo-European root means "be empty," which perfectly describes the grief that many recent widowers feel.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

widower widowers

Last November, another jury awarded the widower of one of the MAX victims $28.45 million.

From Barron's ● May 23, 2026

A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026

The movie — which he wrote, directed and stars in — follows a widower as he scatters his wife’s ashes in very specific locations and deals with the memories that arise at each of them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026

I am a healthy, active 71-year-old widower and I fully retired last May.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 29, 2026

Iliey call him “Lo,” which is short for Lothario, which is meant to be witty, for he is a shy and silent man, a widower.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara

Thousands of widows and widowers have been short-changed of their Social Security payments as a result of blunders by the Social Security Administration, a government watchdog has revealed.

From MarketWatch ● May 1, 2026

A lot of those old trusts, notably A/B trusts, have rigid language limiting how widows and widowers can control family money after their spouse died.

From Barron's ● Feb. 28, 2026

Many widows and widowers raise an eyebrow when they hear well-meaning people urging them to "be strong" and saying things like "I don't know how you do it."

From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025

Widows and widowers miss spouses who died during the height of the pandemic.

From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2024

As if by a flash of grim light, Indian villages became societies of widows, widowers, and orphans; parents lost their children, and children were suddenly alone.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann