Word.ws English Dictionary

polygyny

/pəˈlɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.ni/

polygyny noun: the state or practice of a man having more than one wife at a time; plurality of wives; marriage between one man and multiple wives.

Noun

polygyny (countable and uncountable, plural polygynies)

  1. The state or practice of a man having more than one wife at a time; plurality of wives; marriage between one man and multiple wives.
    • We may infer that in most cases where polygyny exists, monogamy co-exists to a greater extent, and in all other cases to a considerable extent.1883, Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Sociology, page 685
    Antonyms:
    monogyny, monogamy
  2. The condition of an ant colony that has multiple egg-laying queens.
  3. Synonym of polygamy.
    Synonyms:
    polygamy

polygyny meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati

polygyny in Hindi

plurality of wives at the same time
बहुपत्नीत्व bahupatnītva

polygyny in Tamil

பலமனைவி மணம்

polygyny in Telugu

plurality of wives at the same time
బహుభార్యాత్వము bahubhāryātvamu

polygyny in Gujarati

plurality of wives at the same time
બહુપત્નીત્વ bahupatnītva, બહુપત્નીકત્વ bahupatnīkatva
More languagesFewer languages
polygyny in Arabic
تَعَدُّد اَلزَّوْجَات taʕaddud az-zawjāt

Synonyms of polygyny

Antonyms

Forms of polygyny

pluralpolygynies

Origin of polygyny

From Ancient Greek πολύ (polú, “many”) + γυνή (gunḗ, “woman, wife”). By surface analysis, poly- + -gyny.

Words formed from polygyny

Questions about polygyny

What does polygyny mean?
Polygyny means the state or practice of a man having more than one wife at a time; plurality of wives; marriage between one man and multiple wives.
What is polygyny in Hindi?
Polygyny in Hindi is बहुपत्नीत्व (bahupatnītva). See Polygyny meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is polygyny?
Polygyny is a noun.
How do you pronounce polygyny?
Polygyny is pronounced /pəˈlɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.ni/.
What is the plural of polygyny?
The plural of polygyny is polygynies.

Words near polygyny in the dictionary

  1. polygynists
  2. polygynoecial
  3. polygynous
  4. polygynously
  5. polygyns
  6. polygyny
  7. polygyrate
  8. polygyria
  9. polygyrid
  10. polygyrids
  11. polygyrous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: polygyny (page history and authors); polygyny (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-polygyny.wav.

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