wife

/waɪf/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Multicultural London English/wæf/

wife noun: a married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.

Noun

wife (plural wives)

A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.
- The Fisherman and His Wife
- And I geue vnto the ſame Elizabeth my wif the ſparuers and hangings of the ſame twoo beddes vſuallye occupied, and hanging ouer and about the ſame twoo beddes[…]1558 April 29, Sir William Drurye, Will of Sir William Drurye [of Hawstede, Suffolk], Prerogative Court of Canterbury, page 1
Synonyms:

little woman
The female of a pair of mated animals.
- A new wife for the gander is introduced into the pen.
- I stepped out and advanced valiantly upon a long-maned bull in the midst of his wives. I was armed with the regular club with which the boat-pullers killed the wounded seals gaffed aboard by the hunters.1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC
(Scotland, otherwise puristic) Synonym of woman.

Synonyms:

woman

Verb

wife (third-person singular simple present wifes, present participle wifing, simple past and past participle wifed)

(colloquial) To marry (a woman).
- Mentally scarred for life, love is war / And some chicks are just too hard to wife2004, “Guinnesses”, in Mm..Food, performed by MF Doom ft. Angelika & 4-IZE
- Mecca knew she wasn't lying. She had the type of beauty that made niggas want to wife her.2009, Ashley Antoinette Coleman, JaQuavis Coleman, The Cartel, volume 1, →ISBN, page 106
Synonyms:

bewife, take to wife, wive

wife meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

wife in Hindi

female partner in a marriage: पत्नी patnī, बीवी bīvī, गृहणी gŕhṇī, भार्या bhāryā, वल्लभा vallabhā, वधू vadhū

wife in Tamil

female partner in a marriage: மனைவி maṉaivi, பெண்டாட்டி peṇṭāṭṭi

wife in Marathi

female partner in a marriage: नवरी navrī, बायको bāyko, पत्नी patnī

wife in Urdu

female partner in a marriage: بِیوِی bīvī, پَتْنی patnī, بیگَم begam, اَہْلِیَہ ahliya, زَوجَہ zauja, زَن zan

More languagesFewer languages

wife in Bengali: বিবি bibi, বেগম begom, বউ bou, আহলিয়া ahliẏa
wife in Telugu: పెళ్ళాం peḷḷāṁ, భార్య bhārya, ఆలి āli
wife in Malayalam: ഭാര്യ bhārya, പത്നി patni
wife in Kannada: ಪತ್ನಿ patni
wife in Punjabi: ਪਤਨੀ patnī, ਵਹੁਟੀ vahuṭī, ਜ਼ਨਾਨੀ zanānī, ਘਰਵਾਲ਼ੀ gharvāḷī
wife in Gujarati: પત્ની patnī, બૈરી bairī, ભાર્યા bhāryā, સ્ત્રી strī
wife in Odia: ସ୍ତ୍ରୀ stri
wife in Sanskrit: पत्नी patnī, भार्या bhāryā, दयिता dayitā, जाया jāyā
wife in Sinhala: බිරිඳ biriⁿda, භාර්යාව bhāryāwa, පවුල pawula
wife in Assamese: ঘৈণী ghoini, পত্নী potni
wife in Nepali: पत्नी patnī
wife in Pashto: ښځه x̌ᶕja, زوجه zawja, ورتينه wərtina
wife in Tagalog: esposa, babaeng asawa
wife in Arabic: زَوْجَة zawja, اِمْرَأَة imraʔa
wife in Malay: isteri, bini
wife in Indonesian: istri
wife in Thai: ภริยา pá-rí-yaa, ภรรยา pan-yaa, เมีย miia
wife in Vietnamese: vợ
wife in Myanmar: မယား ma.ya:, ဇနီး ja.ni:
Kashmiri: آشَنؠ āśan', آشێنؠ āśen', کۄلَے kọlay, خانہٕ دارێنؠ xānụdāren'

Examples of wife in a sentence

I thought that I was going to wife her, but because of the new news with my brother I couldn't do it.2010, Kenya K. Watkins, The Life You Choose, →ISBN, page 154:
But I told you that you're not a wifeable woman, and I told him so, and he wanted to wife you anyway.2016, Gayl Jones, The Healing, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with wife

Synonyms of wife

16 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

husband
were

All synonyms and antonyms of wife

Forms of wife

Noun
plural	wives
Verb
third-person singular present	wifes
present participle	wifing
past participle	wifed
past	wifed

Plural of wife: wives

Origin of wife

Inherited from Middle English wyf, wif, from Old English wīf (“woman, wife”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą (“woman; wife”). Cognates Germanic cognates include Scots wife (“wife; woman”), North Frisian wuf, wüf (“wife, woman”), Saterland Frisian Wieuw (“woman; wife; female”), West Frisian wiif (“wife; woman”), Cimbrian baibe, baip (“wife; woman”), Dutch wijf (“woman; female”), German Weib (“woman; wife; female”), German Low German Wiev (“woman; female”), Mòcheno baib (“woman”), Vilamovian bow (“wife; woman”), Yiddish ווײַב (vayb, “wife; woman”) Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish viv (“wife; woman”), Faroese vív (“wife; woman”), Icelandic víf (“wife; woman”). The further etymology is unknown, with a number of disputed suggestions. One suggestion connects Tocharian A/B kip/kwīpe (“genitals, female pudenda”), for a hypothetical Indo-European *gʰwíbʰ- (“pudenda”). Another suggestion connects Old English wǣfan (“wrap, clothe”), Old Norse vífa (“wrap, veil”) for a suggested original motive of "married woman wearing a scarf". Yet another suggestion connects Old High German weibōn (“move to and fro”), Old Norse veifa (“swing, throw”), for a...

Words formed from wife

Phrases with wife

8 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with wife

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wife

What does wife mean?: Wife means a married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.
What is wife in Hindi?: Wife in Hindi is पत्नी (patnī), बीवी (bīvī), गृहणी (gŕhṇī). See Wife meaning in Hindi.
How do you use wife in a sentence?: I thought that I was going to wife her, but because of the new news with my brother I couldn't do it.
What part of speech is wife?: Wife can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce wife?: Wife is pronounced /wæf/ (Multicultural London English).
What is the plural of wife?: The plural of wife is wives.

Words near wife in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: wife (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wife.ogg, En-uk-wife.ogg.

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