wife
Pluralwives
Pluralwives
- 1A person's female spouse, or more generally any married woman.
His wife manages the family business while he travels for work.
Several wives attended the ceremony alongside their husbands.
UsageThe plural is wives (not
incorrect: wifes). In casual, often joking speech, the wife means your own wife.Oppositehusband
Note
Old English wīf covered both "woman" and "wife", and English made the married meaning the main one while the general "woman" sense retreated to the margins. Sir William Drurye's will of 1557 already says "Elizabeth my wif", the possessive frame that still shapes the word: one is always someone's wife.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Old English wīf meant both woman and wife. en.wiktionary.org
- The married meaning became dominant, while the general woman meaning became marginal. en.wikipedia.org
- Sir William Drury's will was made in 1557. en.wikipedia.org
- The will contains the exact words Elizabeth my wif. en.wiktionary.org
- 2To marry a woman; to take a woman as one's spouse.
His friends could tell he was finally ready to settle down and wife her.
He swore he would never settle down, and then he wifed his college girlfriend.
Similarwive
Note
A colloquial verb that began in African-American Vernacular English: a 2004 MF Doom track uses the verb for women he judges too difficult to make a steady partner. Gayl Jones's The Healing (1998) even builds the adjective wifeable.
- 3The female member of a mated pair of animals.
The old swan and his wife returned to the same lake each spring.
Our neighbor's gander hisses at anyone who wanders too close to his wife and goslings.
Similarmate
Note
Human marriage, borrowed for the barnyard and the seal colony. A gander is given a new wife, and Jack London's The Sea-Wolf (1904) has a long-maned bull standing "in the midst of his wives." The word is usually framed from the male's side, as his wife or his wives. That framing makes it natural for paired birds and harem-keeping animals, and it gives the description a storyteller's touch.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Wife is applied figuratively to an animal's mate, including a gander's new mate. en.wiktionary.org
- Jack London wrote The Sea-Wolf. exhibits.usu.edu
- The Sea-Wolf was first published in book form in 1904. archive.org
- The novel describes a long-maned bull seal among his females using the exact phrase quoted. en.wikisource.org
Less common meaning
- 4A woman in general, used without any reference to marriage.
In Dundee we were all scared of the wife upstairs who shouted at us for playing football.
The fishermen bought their nets from a sharp-tongued wife down by the docks.
Similarwoman
Note
In Scotland the word's oldest meaning held on, so a wife can be any woman, married or not. Elsewhere it survives in compounds such as fishwife, midwife and old wives' tale, and in puristic writing, which deliberately prefers native words, and there it echoes the Old English sense described under the married meaning. Outside those settings most readers will hear "married woman", so the general sense needs context to land.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The general meaning 'woman' is inherited from Old English and survives in Scotland. en.wiktionary.org
- Fishwife preserves wife in its older sense 'woman'. en.wiktionary.org
- Midwife contains the older element meaning 'woman'. en.wiktionary.org
- Wives in old wives' tale preserves the older general meaning 'women'. en.wiktionary.org
- The general sense is also identified as puristic outside Scotland. en.wiktionary.org
- The general sense continues the Old English meaning 'woman'. en.wiktionary.org
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
"Wife" comes from Middle English "wyf," from Old English "wīf" ("woman, wife"), going back to Proto-Germanic "*wībą" ("woman, wife"). It has many Germanic relatives, such as Dutch "wijf" and German "Weib." Its deeper origin is unknown, with several disputed suggestions.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Wife descends through Middle English wyf and Old English wīf, meaning woman or wife, from Proto-Germanic *wībą with the same meanings. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch wijf and German Weib are Germanic relatives of wife. en.wiktionary.org
- The deeper origin is unknown and several proposed explanations are disputed. en.wiktionary.org