wifely
/ˈwaɪf.li/
wifely adjective: of, befitting, pertaining to, or characteristic of a wife or wives.
Adjective
wifely (comparative wifelier, superlative wifeliest)
- Of, befitting, pertaining to, or characteristic of a wife or wives.
- Being a domestic man, John decidedly missed the wifely attentions he had been accustomed to receive; but, as he adored his babies, he cheerfully relinquished his comfort for a time, supposing, with masculine ignorance, that peace would soon be restored.1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “On the Shelf”, in Little Women: […], 2nd part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, pages 216–217
- '[…] Behold!' and she took his hand and placed it upon her shapely head, and then bent herself slowly down till one knee for an instant touched the ground—'Behold! in token of submission do I bow me to my lord! Behold!' and she kissed him on the lips, 'in token of my wifely love do I kiss my...1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, pages 283–284
wifely meaning in Urdu
wifely in Urdu
- بیوی کی طرح
Examples of wifely in a sentence
- Behold!' and she kissed him on the lips, 'in token of my wifely love do I kiss my lord.[…]'1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co....
- From here, I am trusting you and your therapist, because the wifely hot air and gaslighting don’t square with “Outside of this issue, our relationship works.”2025 September 21, Carolyn Hax, “Carolyn Hax: Spouse opts out of wife’s extravagant birthday demands”, in The Washington Post, Washington...
Synonyms of wifely
Forms of wifely
| comparative | wifelier |
|---|---|
| superlative | wifeliest |
| alternative form (obsolete) | wively |
Origin of wifely
From Middle English wifly, wyfly, from Old English wīflīc (“womanly, wifely”), from Proto-Germanic *wībalīkaz (“wifely”). Cognate with Scots wifely (“womanly, wifely”), Dutch wijflijk, wijfelijk, German weiblich (“feminine, female”). By surface analysis, wife + -ly.
Words formed from wifely
- unwifeliness
- unwifely
- wifeliness
- wifely duties
- non-wifely
Questions about wifely
- What does wifely mean?
- Wifely means of, befitting, pertaining to, or characteristic of a wife or wives.
- What is wifely in Urdu?
- Wifely in Urdu is بیوی کی طرح. See Wifely meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use wifely in a sentence?
- Behold!' and she kissed him on the lips, 'in token of my wifely love do I kiss my lord.[…]'
- What part of speech is wifely?
- Wifely is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce wifely?
- Wifely is pronounced /ˈwaɪf.li/.
Words near wifely in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wifely (page history and authors); wifely (Urdu Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “wifely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wifely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.