spouse
/spaʊ̯s/
spouse noun: a person in a marriage or marital relationship.
Noun
spouse (plural spouses)
- A person in a marriage or marital relationship.
- People should treat their spouses with respect.
- At last such grace I found, and meanes I wrought, / That I that Ladie to my spouse had wonne1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 21
- Synonyms:
- better half, consort, helpmate, helpmeet, mate, other half, partner, spousy, wedder
Verb
spouse (third-person singular simple present spouses, present participle spousing, simple past and past participle spoused)
spouse meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
spouse in Hindi
- person in a marriage or marital relationship
- जीवन साथी jīvan sāthī
spouse in Tamil
- கணவன், மனைவி, வாழ்க்கைத் துணை, வாழ்நாள் துணை, துணைவர், துணைவன்
spouse in Urdu
- person in a marriage or marital relationship
- شریک حیات śarīk-e-hayāt, محرم mahram, جیون ساتھی jīvan-sāthī, زوج zoj, ہمسفر hamsafar, رفیق حیات rafīq-e-hayāt
spouse in Bengali
- পত্নী, পক্ষ, পতি
More languagesFewer languages
- spouse in Telugu
- జీవిత భాగస్వామి, భార్యాభర్త
- spouse in Malayalam
- ഇണ iṇa, ജീവിതപങ്കാളി jīvitapaṅkāḷi
- spouse in Kannada
- ಗಂಡ, ಹೆಂಡತಿ, ಮನೆಯವರು, ಇನಿಯರ್
- spouse in Punjabi
- ਪਤੀ/ਪਤਨੀ
- spouse in Gujarati
- જીવનસાથી, પતિ/પત્ની
- spouse in Odia
- ପତ୍ନୀ patni
- spouse in Nepali
- जीवनसाथी, जीवनसाथीलाई
- spouse in Tagalog
- asawa
- spouse in Arabic
- زَوْج zawj, زَوْجَة zawja
- spouse in Malay
- pasangan, teman hidup
- spouse in Persian
- همسر hamsar
- spouse in Thai
- คู่สมรส kûu-sǒm-rót
- spouse in Vietnamese
- chồng, vợ, nhà, phối ngẫu
Examples of spouse in a sentence
- I love my spouse. I love you! I love that song!
- In that society, a spouse is mourned for one year, a parent for six months.
- Randal is less welcome than Rachel but as her spouse we should invite them both.
Synonyms of spouse
Forms of spouse
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | spouses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | spouses |
| present participle | spousing |
| past participle | spoused |
| past | spoused |
Origin of spouse
From Middle English spous, spouse, from Anglo-Norman espus m, espuse f and Old French espos m, espose f and by aphesis from Latin spōnsus m (“bridegroom”), spōnsa f (“bride”), from spondeō (“to vow, pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *spend-. Displaced native Old English ġemaca. Related to espouse and sponsor.
Words formed from spouse
Phrases with spouse
Words that rhyme with spouse
Questions about spouse
- What does spouse mean?
- Spouse means a person in a marriage or marital relationship.
- What is spouse in Hindi?
- Spouse in Hindi is जीवन साथी (jīvan sāthī). See Spouse meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is spouse?
- Spouse can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce spouse?
- Spouse is pronounced /spaʊ̯s/.
- What is the plural of spouse?
- The plural of spouse is spouses.
Words near spouse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spouse (page history and authors); spouse (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spouse (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spouse (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ഇണ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); spouse (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spouse (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spouse (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ପତ୍ନୀ (Odia) (page history and authors); spouse (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-spouse.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spouse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spouse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.