Word.ws English Dictionary

spinsters

spinsters is the plural of spinster.

Meaning of spinster

Noun

spinster (plural spinsters)

  1. (derogatory, sometimes) A woman who has never been married, especially one past the typical marrying age according to social traditions.
    • If […] a woman be named spinster, she may abate […]the same [writ].1628–1644, Edw[ard] Coke, (please specify |part=1 to 4), London
    Synonyms:
    old maid
  2. One who spins (puts a spin on) a political media story so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance; a spin doctor, spin merchant or spinmeister.
  3. (obsolete) Someone whose occupation was spinning thread.
    • The spinsters and the knitters in the sun.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  4. (obsolete) A woman of evil life and character; so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction.
  5. (dialectal, rare) A spider; an insect (such as a silkworm) which spins thread.

Questions about spinsters

What is spinsters the plural of?
Spinsters is the plural of spinster.

Words near spinsters in the dictionary

  1. spinsterishly
  2. spinsterishness
  3. spinsterism
  4. spinsterlike
  5. spinsterly
  6. spinsters
  7. spinstership
  8. spinstress
  9. spinstresses
  10. spinstry
  11. spint

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spinsters (page history and authors); spinster (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:

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