MEANING
1. A woman whose spouse has died, especially one who has not remarried.
2. To cause someone to lose their spouse through death.
3. A person frequently left alone because their partner is absorbed in a hobby or other pursuit.
Use it for
identifying a woman who has lost her spouse; describing the surviving partner after a marriage ends through death; distinguishing bereavement from divorce or separationNames a particular relationship to a deceased spouse and distinguishes real bereavement from humorous absence. Writing functions: Mourning / Loss.
Words that belong together
- a young widow
- a war widow
- leave a widow
On the page
The widow kept both names on the gate long after the letters had faded.
She disliked being introduced as a widow, as though the rest of her life had disappeared.
She was widowed before the orchard bore its first crop.
The disaster widowed him within a month of their anniversary.
During the tournament she jokingly called herself a golf widow.
Word forms
- Base
- widow
- Past tense
- widowed
- Past participle
- widowed
- Present participle
- widowing
Usage notes
Countable noun: widow, widows. The verb can concern a spouse of any gender: widows; widowed; widowed; widowing. Widow is the conventional noun for a bereaved woman; widower is the corresponding noun for a man. Do not assume the deceased spouse was necessarily a man. Register: neutral. Commonness: common; non-bereavement extensions are more restricted (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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