dowry

CEFRC1

/ˈdaʊəɹi/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Money or property a bride's family gives at marriage.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Inheritance from a deceased husband to his widow.

Examples

  • A beautiful face is half of the dowry.

  • It used to be that a girl could only marry if she had a dowry.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3
Synonyms
4

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Payment by the groom or his family to the bride's family.

  2. Payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.

  3. A natural gift or talent.

More examples

In context

  • But no palace had so fair a ceiling; for from the wooden beams were suspended a whole dowry of copper vessels—pails, cauldrons, water pots, of every colour from lustrous black to the palest pink.

  • The family of the groom makes sure the new couple has a house to live in and land to cultivate; they will also pay for the dowry (crucial, for without dowry the new father has no rights over his children; Trouwborst 1962: 136ff.)

  • 1976, Graham Anderson, Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction, Page 19

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Her family had to pay a large blank to the groom's family before the wedding.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English dowarye, dowerie, from Anglo-Norman dowarie, douarie, from Old French douaire, from Medieval Latin dōtārium, from Latin dōs. Doublet of dower.