a married woman, especially when considered in relation to her partner in marriage.
a woman (archaic or dial., except in idioms).
old wives' tale.
a man's partner in marriage; a married woman
an archaic or dialect word for woman
to marry (a woman)
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.
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.
before 900; Middle English, Old English wīf woman; cognate with Dutch wijf, German Weib, Old Norse vīf
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Like many, he and his wife Diane say cost was a factor in choosing it.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
His wife wrote in to remind readers of the British tabloid that he was married.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
As he approached, Trujillo accidentally kicked over a glass of water on the marble floor, but Franco and his wife didn’t stir.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Wu told BBC Chinese that his son and wife moved to the UK in 2022 and 2023, and the only communication he had with them since then was through monthly phone calls and letters.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
There was movement in the balcony to my right, and I glanced up to see the president and his wife taking their seats with their friends Clara Harris and Major Henry Rathbone.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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
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
But the judge threw out her case, saying Queen kaMayisela had a "turnaround" in attitude as she had already agreed that her husband could take other wives.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
While some of the wives wouldn’t bother coming to games every Sunday, Michel said, many of the children saw the Feeney fathers as proper heroes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
“I realized a lot of wives were wishing their husbands were there and they weren’t,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
Finally, with many thank-yous and bowings and scrapings and warmest wishes to their beautiful wives and distinguished husbands, he departed the room.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
"I'm sore offended in the lad I'm wifed to."
From Blind Man's Lantern by Schelling, George Luther
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.
