dowry
/ˈdaʊəɹi/
dowry noun: payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
Noun
dowry (countable and uncountable, plural dowries)
- Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
- Antonyms:
- bride price, reverse dowry, dower
- Payment by the groom or his family to the bride's family.
- The family of the groom makes sure the new couple has a house to live in and land to cultivate; they will also pay for the dowry (crucial, for without dowry the new father has no rights over his children; Trouwborst 1962: 136ff.)2009, Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A People's Story of Burundi, page 125
- Synonyms:
- bride price, reverse dowry, dower
- Inheritance from a deceased husband to his widow.
- Synonyms:
- dower
- A natural gift or talent.
- A large amount.
- But no palace had so fair a ceiling; for from the wooden beams were suspended a whole dowry of copper vessels—pails, cauldrons, water pots, of every colour from lustrous black to the palest pink.1928, E. M. Forster, The Eternal Moment
Verb
dowry (third-person singular simple present dowries, present participle dowrying, simple past and past participle dowried)
- To bestow a dowry upon.
- 1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 191911, Aida Rodman De Milt, Ways and Days Out of London, page 108
dowry meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
dowry in Hindi
- property or payment given at time of marriage
- दहेज़ dahez, दायजा dāyjā, महर mahar
dowry in Tamil
- property or payment given at time of marriage
- வரதட்சணை varataṭcaṇai, சீதனம் cītaṉam
dowry in Marathi
- property or payment given at time of marriage
- हुंडा huṇḍā
dowry in Urdu
- property or payment given at time of marriage
- جہیز jahez, دہیز dahez, مہر mahr
More languagesFewer languages
- dowry in Bengali
- যৌতুক jōutuk, পণ pon
- dowry in Telugu
- కట్నం kaṭnaṁ, వరకట్నం varakaṭnaṁ
- dowry in Malayalam
- സ്ത്രീധനം strīdhanaṁ
- dowry in Kannada
- ವರದಕ್ಷಿಣೆ varadakṣiṇe
- dowry in Punjabi
- ਦਾਜ dāj, داج dāj
- dowry in Gujarati
- દહેજ dahej
- dowry in Sanskrit
- वर vára, शुल्क śulká, आहरण āharaṇa
- dowry in Nepali
- दहेज
- dowry in Tagalog
- bigay-kaya, ubad, dote
- dowry in Arabic
- مَهْر mahr
- dowry in Malay
- hantaran kahwin
- dowry in Indonesian
- harta sesan
- dowry in Persian
- جهیزیه jahiziyye, جهاز jahâz, جهیز jahiz, مهر mahr
- dowry in Thai
- สินสอด sǐn-sɔ̀ɔt
- dowry in Vietnamese
- của hồi môn
- dowry in Myanmar
- ခန်းဝင်ပစ္စည်း hkan:wangpaccany:
Synonyms of dowry
Antonyms
Forms of dowry
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dowries |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dowries |
| present participle | dowrying |
| past participle | dowried |
| past | dowried |
Origin of dowry
From Middle English dowarye, dowerie, from Anglo-Norman dowarie, douarie, from Old French douaire, from Medieval Latin dōtārium, from Latin dōs. Doublet of dower.
Words formed from dowry
Phrases with dowry
Words that rhyme with dowry
Questions about dowry
- What does dowry mean?
- Dowry means payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
- What is dowry in Hindi?
- Dowry in Hindi is दहेज़ (dahez), दायजा (dāyjā), महर (mahar). See Dowry meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is dowry?
- Dowry can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce dowry?
- Dowry is pronounced /ˈdaʊəɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of dowry?
- The plural of dowry is dowries.
Words near dowry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dowry (page history and authors); દહેજ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); आहरण (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); dowry (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dowry.wav.
Cite this entry: “dowry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dowry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.