wife
noun
a married woman, especially when considered in relation to her partner in marriage.
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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:
York had filed for divorce from his wife in May due to irreconcilable differences, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
The extent of the damage on the Tibetan side is unclear but the BBC spoke to Guan Daoxuan in Sichuan province who said he had lost contact with his wife late on Wednesday morning.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
He appeared to have mended relations with his cancer-battling father, King Charles III during recent visits to the UK, but Harry reportedly remains estranged from his heir-to-the-throne brother Prince William and wife Catherine.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
A former executive at Disney, Williams said he and his wife have made it back to Disneyland several times this summer and he walks a mile a day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Maggie pushed him away until she heard the words, “the betrothed wife of Dr. Kane.”
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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
In between sets, she chats casually with soldiers and their wives -- many more than twice her age.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Both have beautiful wives with impressive careers of their own.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
They agreed to get together for dinner with their wives when he returned from a hunting trip to Texas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
South Africa's Zulu king has expressed "deep" regret after a leaked video captured him hurling a barrage of insults at one of his wives.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
“The man called his sons together when he was dying. ‘I have no money to buy you wives, or daughters to exchange for them,’ he said.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
"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.
