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

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026

Andreas Kronthaler, Westwood's widower and long-term design partner, has been the legendary British label's creative director since 2016.

From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026

If you are a widow or a widower stuck in one of these old trusts, your options are limited to what the trust allows.

From Barron's ● Feb. 28, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 29, 2026

Was he thinking about that old widower in China he wanted me to marry?

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Life can get complicated, and widows and widowers can find love again.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

Changes in tax policy in intervening years allowed widows and widowers to access their spouses’ unused exemptions and now the more generous exemptions make it worth revisiting these trusts.

From Barron's ● Feb. 28, 2026

They include 2.5 million pensioners - including widows and widowers - whose state pension operates under the pre-2016 system.

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025

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

From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2024

“Think of how many orphans you’d be leaving behind, how many widowers, a mother in luto for the rest of her life.”

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez