sororate
/səˈɹɔːɹət/
sororate noun: the custom of the marriage of a man to the sister of his wife, usually after the wife has died.
Noun
sororate (countable and uncountable, plural sororates)
- The custom of the marriage of a man to the sister of his wife, usually after the wife has died.
- The sororate was operative during the feudal period, at least among the feudal lords.1967, Han-chi Fêng, The Chinese Kinship System, page 46
- The sororate is frequently associated with the custom of bride price; if the husband′s kindred have “bought” a wife for him and she dies, her family or kindred are obligated to replace her. The institutions of levirate and sororate are very widespread in primitive society, and in many instances a...2007, Leslie A. White, The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome, page 99
- A marriage according to this custom.
- Sororates had a similar effect of providing for the survivors of a deceased.1972, Donald Olen Cowgill, Lowell Don Holmes, Aging and Modernization, page 54
- Marriage within the same clan is prohibited. However, levirates and sororates are prevalent among the Kurumbas. Widow marriage is permitted.1977, P. R. G. Mathur, Tribal Situation in Kerala, page 56
Examples of sororate in a sentence
- The sororate is frequently associated with the custom of bride price; if the husband′s kindred have “bought” a wife for him and she dies, her family or kindred are obligated to replace her.2007, Leslie A. White, The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome, page 99:
- A related marriage tradition is the sororate (Latin soror means “sister”), in which a man has the right to marry a (usually younger) sister of his deceased wife.2010, William A. Haviland, Harald E. L. Prins, Bunny McBride, Dana Walrath, Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge, page 219:
Forms of sororate
| plural | sororates |
|---|
Origin of sororate
From Latin soror (“sister”) + English -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
Words formed from sororate
Phrases with sororate
Questions about sororate
- What does sororate mean?
- Sororate means the custom of the marriage of a man to the sister of his wife, usually after the wife has died.
- How do you use sororate in a sentence?
- The sororate is frequently associated with the custom of bride price; if the husband′s kindred have “bought” a wife for him and she dies, her family or kindred are obligated to replace her.
- What part of speech is sororate?
- Sororate is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sororate?
- Sororate is pronounced /səˈɹɔːɹət/.
- What is the plural of sororate?
- The plural of sororate is sororates.
Words near sororate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sororate (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sororate.wav.
Cite this entry: “sororate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sororate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.