widow
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widow
- /ˈwɪd.əʊ/ UK
- /ˈwɪd.oʊ/ US
Rhymes with -ɪdəʊ
Where it comes from
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 (vidhavā, “widow”).
noun 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.
- 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.
-
An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
Similar: 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.
Opposite: orphan
- Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).
verb widows · widowing · 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.
- To endow with a widow's right.
- To be widow to.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: widow woman, widower, widowhood, wife, spouse, remarriage, woman, bereavement, mourning, window, veuve, relict, dowager, surviving spouse, war widow, grass widow
Translations
Every language
noun woman whose spouse has died
| Español | viuda |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 홀어미 horeomi, 과부 gwabu |
| 日本語 | 寡婦 yamome, 未亡人 mibōjin, 後家 goke, 空き家 akiya |
| 中文 | 寡婦 /寡妇 guǎfù |
| हिन्दी | विधवा vidhvā, बेवा bevā |
| Kiswahili | mjane |
| Português | viúva |
| Français | veuve |
| Deutsch | Witwe |
| Italiano | vedova |
| Ελληνικά | χήρα chíra |
| Română | văduvă |
| Русский | вдова́ vdová, вдови́ца vdovíca |
| Tiếng Việt | quả phụ, goá |
| العربية | أَرْمَلَة ʔarmala |
| עברית | אַלְמָנָה almaná |
noun woman whose husband is often away
| Kiswahili | mjane |
|---|---|
| Русский | соло́менная вдова́ solómennaja vdová |
noun card games: additional hand dealt face down
| Français | chien |
|---|
noun single line of type carried over to the next page
| 日本語 | 孤立行 koritsugyō, ウィドー widō |
|---|---|
| Kiswahili | mjane |
| Português | viúva |
| Deutsch | Hurenkind |
| Русский | вися́чая строка́ visjáčaja stroká |
noun spider of the genus Latrodectus
| Português | viúva negra |
|---|---|
| Русский | чёрная вдова́ čórnaja vdová |
Talk about this word "widow." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/widow. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. widow. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/widow "widow." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/widow.Cite this
@misc{widow_2026,
title = {widow},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/widow},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
