wife
noun
a married woman, especially when considered in relation to her partner in marriage.
wife
1 American
[wahyf]
/ waɪf /
noun
-
wives
plural
-
a married woman, especially when considered in relation to her partner in marriage.
-
a woman (archaic or dial., except in idioms).
old wives' tale.
verb (used with or without object)
wifed,
wifing
idioms
-wife
2
American
wife
British
/ waɪf /
noun
-
a man's partner in marriage; a married woman
-
an archaic or dialect word for woman
-
to marry (a woman)
wife
More Idioms
Usage
What is a basic definition of wife? A wife is a married woman. The word wife is often used when a woman’s marital status is important to the current topic. For example, a man might explain to a salesperson that he is looking for a present for his wife, which is a lot more helpful than saying he is buying a gift for “a woman.”The plural of wife is wives. A man who is married is called a husband. A woman whose marital partner has died is called a widow.
- Real-life examples: Queen Isabella I of Castille was the wife of King Ferdinand II of Aragon. King Henry VIII infamously had six wives (but one at a time!). If you are married to a woman, then she is your wife.
- Used in a sentence: My uncle has never been married and says he has no interest in finding a wife.
- Used in a sentence: The documentary explored the lives of prison wives.
What does -wife mean? The combining form -wife is used like a suffix to mean “wife" or, more generally, "woman." It’s used in a variety of terms, especially in reference to professions, but it’s relatively uncommon except for in a few words. The form -wife comes from Old English wīf, meaning “woman.” Wīf was eventually combined with mann, which was then a gender-neutral term for an adult person, to create wīfmann, the source of the modern word woman. Want to know more? Check out our Words That Use entry for -woman. What are variants of -wife?Just as the word wives is used as a plural form of the word wife, the ending -wives is often used as a plural form of -wife, as in midwives.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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wifedomnoun
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wifehoodnoun
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wifelessnessnoun
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wifelinessnoun
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wifelessadjective
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wifelikeadjective
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wifelyadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of wife
before 900; Middle English, Old English wīf woman; cognate with Dutch wijf, German Weib, Old Norse vīf
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Survivors of various attacks spoke of how their lives changed forever, including Paul Price, a survivor of the Manchester Arena attack, that claimed the life of his wife Elaine.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Floridian Karl Bauknight lost his wife six years ago and has been on several cruises since, where most of the travelers have been couples.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
It comes less than 48 hours after the shock news broke that the Duke of Sussex will be relocating back to Britain from California within weeks with his wife Meghan and their two children.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
He calls her “sweetie” and has told other aides that “Harp is the only one who loves him as much as his wife and children” and “will never leave him,” the Times reports.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
A husband and wife, sitting on a wagon perch, smile at me.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Oys′ter-wench, -wife, -wom′an, a woman who vends oysters.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various
Had Arthur lived, the story of Henry and his wives would not exist and Henry would probably be a second-son Tudor footnote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Anne Boleyn was the second of Henry VIII’s six wives and the first to lose her head.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Their mutual admiration began in 2018 when their wives — former models who went on to have successful business careers — became friends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Both have beautiful wives with impressive careers of their own.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was not a delegate to the World Anti-Slavery Convention, but she sat with the wives of delegates and shared the female delegates’ “humiliation and chagrin.”
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
"I'm sore offended in the lad I'm wifed to."
From Blind Man's Lantern by George Luther Schelling
From her perspective, all-powerful cosmic beings have no business wifing up with mortals.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2025
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
