Word.ws English Dictionary

better half

better half noun: a person's spouse or lover, most commonly a man's wife.

Noun

better half (plural better halves)

  1. A person's spouse or lover, most commonly a man's wife.
    • Near-synonyms: other half (neutral valence), ball and chain (negative valence)
    • Let me ask my better half and get back to you.
  2. (archaic) A very close friend or companion.

better half meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Kannada

better half in Hindi

spouse or lover
अर्धांगिनी ardhāṅginī, पत्नी patnī

better half in Tamil

கணவன், மனைவி, வாழ்விணையர்

better half in Urdu

spouse or lover
شَرِیکِ سَفْر śarīk-i safr

better half in Kannada

ಧರ್ಮಪತ್ನಿ, ಜೀವನಸಂಗಾತಿ
More languagesFewer languages
better half in Thai
ภรรยา pan-yaa

Synonyms of better half

All synonyms of better half

Forms of better half

pluralbetter halves

Origin of better half

Ultimately from such Latin poetic phrases as animae dīmidium meae (“half of my soul”) (Horace writing about Virgil), when it instead referred to a close friend (compare soulmate). First written instance of it meaning “spouse” was in 1580 by Sir Philip Sidney.

Questions about better half

What does better half mean?
Better half means a person's spouse or lover, most commonly a man's wife.
What is better half in Hindi?
Better half in Hindi is अर्धांगिनी (ardhāṅginī), पत्नी (patnī). See Better half meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is better half?
Better half is a noun.
What is the plural of better half?
The plural of better half is better halves.

Words near better half in the dictionary

  1. better built
  2. better dead than red
  3. better for it
  4. better for someone
  5. better for you
  6. better half
  7. better halves
  8. better hung
  9. better is the enemy of good
  10. better known
  11. better known as

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: better half (page history and authors); better half (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); better half (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-better half.ogg.

Cite this entry: “better half.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/better_half. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.