widow
Syllables: wid·owUK/ˈwɪd.əʊ//ˈwɪd.oʊ/
widow noun: a woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.
Noun
widow (plural widows)
- A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.
- Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).
- Now that he is a widow, he tries to win Olivia back through the songs and the music that brought them together all those years ago, leaving Olivia torn between moving forward with Josh or falling into the arms of the man she truly loves.2016 June 23, Traciy Reyes, “‘The Wedding March’: Hallmark Movie — June Bride Unwittingly Hires Wedding Singer Who Is Her Ex, Starring Josie Bissett, Jack Wagner”, in The Inquisitr News
- A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc.
- My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.
- I had been feeling like a bowling-alley widow, but knew he loved the game, so I suggested we join a mixed league.1988 November 27, Emily Parry, “For a Bowling Widow, a Split Isn't Just Two Lonely Pins”, in New York Times
- An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
- Synonyms:
- kitty
- A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.
- Antonyms:
- orphan
- Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).
Verb
widow (third-person singular simple present widows, present participle widowing, simple past and past participle widowed)
- To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.
- To strip of anything valued.
- Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now,
My friend, the brother of my love.
My Arthur! whom I shall not see
Till all my widow’d race be run;
Dear as the mother to the son,
More than my brothers are to me.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
- Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now,
- To endow with a widow's right.
- To be widow to.
widow meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
widow in Hindi
- woman whose spouse has died
- विधवा vidhvā, बेवा bevā
- person whose spouse has died
- विधुर vidhur, विधवा vidhvā
widow in Tamil
- woman whose spouse has died
- விதவை vitavai
widow in Marathi
- woman whose spouse has died
- विद्वा vidvā
widow in Urdu
- woman whose spouse has died
- بیوَہ beva, وِیڈو vīḍo, وِدْھوا vidhvā
More languagesFewer languages
- widow in Bengali
- বিধবা bidhoba
- widow in Telugu
- ముండ muṇḍa, విధవ vidhava, వితంతువు vitantuvu, విశ్వస్త viśvasta
- widow in Malayalam
- വിധവ vidhava
- widow in Kannada
- ವಿಧವೆ vidhave
- widow in Punjabi
- ਵਿਧਵਾ vidhvā
- widow in Gujarati
- વિધવા vidhvā, રાંડીરાંડ rā̃ḍīrā̃ḍ, બેવા bevā
- widow in Odia
- ନିସଙ୍ଗ ଧାଡ଼ି nisaṅga dhāṛi
- widow in Sanskrit
- विधवा vidhavā
- widow in Assamese
- বেঁৱা bẽwa
- widow in Nepali
- बिधवा bidhawā
- widow in Pashto
- کونډه kwǝ́nḍa, باربلېزه bārbelíza
- widow in Arabic
- أَرْمَلَة ʔarmala
- widow in Malay
- janda, balu
- widow in Indonesian
- janda
- widow in Thai
- แม่ม่าย mɛ̂ɛ-mâai, แม่หม้าย mɛ̂ɛ-mâai, ม่าย mâai, หม้าย mâai
- widow in Vietnamese
- quả phụ, goá
- widow in Myanmar
- မုဆိုးမ mu.hcui:ma.
- Sindhi
- وڌوا odhvā
Examples of widow in a sentence
- The female black widow spider is known to cannibalise the male.
- Formally the widow still ranches, but in fact she leaves all ranching to the foreman.
- Ever the sailor's widow looked seaward, hoping to see her missing man coming home.
Synonyms of widow
Antonyms
Forms of widow
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | widows |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | widows |
| present participle | widowing |
| past participle | widowed |
| past | widowed |
Origin of widow
PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe (“widow”), from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā (“widow”), from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ (“widow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ (“widow”), possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu. Cognates Cognate with Scots weedae, wedow, widdow (“widow”), Cimbrian bittaba (“widow”), Dutch weduwe, weeuw (“widow”), German Witwe (“widow”), Vilamovian wytwa (“widow”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō, “widow”), Old Irish fedb (“widow”), Welsh gweddw (“widow”), Asturian and Spanish viuda (“widow”), Aragonese and Latin vidua (“widow”), Catalan vídua (“widow”), French veuve (“widow”), Galician and Portuguese viúva (“widow”), Italian vedova (“widow”), Romanian văduvă (“widow”), Ancient Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos, “bachelor”), Albanian ve (“widow, widower”), Belarusian удава́ (udavá, “widow”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene vdova (“widow”), Polish gdowa, wdowa (“widow”), Russian and Ukrainian вдова́ (vdová, “widow”), Serbo-Croatian udova, у̀дова (“widow”), Central Kurdish بێوە (bêwe, “widow”), Ossetian идӕдз (idæʒ, “widowed”), Persian بیوه (bive, bêva, “widow”), Sanskrit विधवा...
Words formed from widow
- alpha widow
- black widow
- chuck-will's-widow
- Dutch widow
- false widow
- golf widow
- grass widow
- half-widow
- hempen widow
- hemp-widow
- merry widow
- merry-widow
- military widow
- trans widow
- war widow
- widow bewitched
- widow bird
- widow cleansing
- widow finch
- widow foreclosure
- widow-hunter
- widow inheritance
- widow maker
- widow-maker
- widow monkey
- widow's mite
- widow's silk
- widow's veil
- widow-wail
Phrases with widow
Words that rhyme with widow
Questions about widow
- What does widow mean?
- Widow means a woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.
- What is widow in Hindi?
- Widow in Hindi is विधवा (vidhvā), बेवा (bevā), विधुर (vidhur). See Widow meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is widow?
- Widow can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce widow?
- Widow is pronounced /ˈwɪd.əʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of widow?
- The plural of widow is widows.
Words near widow in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: widow (page history and authors); బోడి (Telugu) (page history and authors); ವಿಧವೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); বেঁৱা (Assamese) (page history and authors); बिधवा (Nepali) (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: en-us-widow.ogg.
Cite this entry: “widow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/widow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.