levirate
/ˈlɛvɪɹət/
levirate adjective: having to do with one's husband's brother.
Adjective
levirate (not comparable)
Noun
levirate (plural levirates)
- A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.
- The institution of levirate marriage.
- And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry.1894, Edward Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, 2nd edition, Macmillan and Co., page 510
- It is only a secondary purpose of the levirate that the property of the deceased passes on to the one who is heir to his name, and is probably a later accretion.1986, Claus Westermann, translated by John S. Scullion, Genesis 37-50: A Continental Commentary, Fortress Press, →ISBN, page 52
levirate meaning in Tamil
levirate in Tamil
- விதவை ஒருவள்
Forms of levirate
| plural | levirates |
|---|
Origin of levirate
From Latin lēvir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dayh₂wḗr (“one's brother-in-law”).
Words formed from levirate
Phrases with levirate
Questions about levirate
- What does levirate mean?
- Levirate means having to do with one's husband's brother.
- What is levirate in Tamil?
- Levirate in Tamil is விதவை ஒருவள். See Levirate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is levirate?
- Levirate can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce levirate?
- Levirate is pronounced /ˈlɛvɪɹət/.
Words near levirate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: levirate (page history and authors); levirate (Tamil 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.
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Cite this entry: “levirate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/levirate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.