Word.ws English Dictionary

levirates

levirates is the plural of levirate.

Meaning of levirate

Noun

levirate (plural levirates)

  1. (countable) A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.
  2. 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

See all 3 meanings of levirate

Questions about levirates

What is levirates the plural of?
Levirates is the plural of levirate.

Words near levirates in the dictionary

  1. Levinton
  2. levir
  3. levirate
  4. levirate marriage
  5. levirate marriages
  6. levirates
  7. leviratic
  8. leviratical
  9. leviration
  10. Levirgian
  11. levirs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: levirates (page history and authors); levirate (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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