concubine
/ˈkɑŋkjəbaɪn/
concubine noun: a sexual partner, especially a woman, to whom one is not or cannot be married.
Noun
concubine (plural concubines)
- A sexual partner, especially a woman, to whom one is not or cannot be married.
- A woman who lives with a man, but who is not a wife.
- And that is more than I will yield unto: / I know I am too mean to be your queen, / And yet too good to be your concubine.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- Synonyms:
- cohabitor, cohabitant, domestic partner
- A slave-girl or woman, kept for instance in a harem, who is held for sexual service.
- He ſhall be made a chaſte and luſtleſſe Eunuch,
And in my Sarell tend my Concubines:c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC... - And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 20:4–6
- Synonyms:
- odalisque
- He ſhall be made a chaſte and luſtleſſe Eunuch,
concubine meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
concubine in Hindi
- a woman who lives with a man, but who is not a wife
- रखैल rakhail, उपपत्नी uppatnī
concubine in Tamil
- வைப்பாட்டி, கூத்தியாள், கூத்தி, காமக்கிழத்தி, ஆசைநாயகி
concubine in Urdu
- داشتہ
concubine in Malayalam
- concubine; mistress
- വെപ്പാട്ടി veppāṭṭi
More languagesFewer languages
- concubine in Kannada
- ಮದುವೆಯಾಗದೆ ಒಬ್ಬ ಪುರುಷನೊಡನೆ ಬಾಳುವವಳು, ಉಪಪತ್ನಿ
- concubine in Tagalog
- kalaguyo, kabit
- concubine in Arabic
- سُرِّيَة surriya
- concubine in Indonesian
- selir
- concubine in Thai
- (พระ~)สนม sà-nǒm
- concubine in Vietnamese
- vợ lẻ, nàng hầu
Examples of concubine in a sentence
- And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 20:4–6:
- Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorities, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.c. 1909, Mark Twain, “Letter VIII”, in Letters from the Earth:
Synonyms of concubine
21 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of concubine
| plural | concubines |
|---|
Origin of concubine
From Middle English concubine (first attested 1250–1300), from Anglo-Norman concubine, from Latin concubīna, equivalent to concub- (variant stem of concumbō (“to lie together”)) + feminine suffix -īna.
Words formed from concubine
Questions about concubine
- What does concubine mean?
- Concubine means a sexual partner, especially a woman, to whom one is not or cannot be married.
- What is concubine in Hindi?
- Concubine in Hindi is रखैल (rakhail), उपपत्नी (uppatnī). See Concubine meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use concubine in a sentence?
- And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
- What part of speech is concubine?
- Concubine is a noun.
- How do you pronounce concubine?
- Concubine is pronounced /ˈkɑŋkjəbaɪn/ (US).
- What is the plural of concubine?
- The plural of concubine is concubines.
Words near concubine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: concubine (page history and authors); concubine (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); concubine (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); വെപ്പാട്ടി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); concubine (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-us-concubine.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-concubine.wav.
Cite this entry: “concubine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/concubine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.