widow

CEFRB2

/ˈwɪd.əʊ/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A woman whose husband has died.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A person whose spouse is absent:

Examples

  • The victim's widow was today being comforted by family and friends.

  • The widow had to get through a lot of hardships.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • /ˈwɪd.oʊ/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A person who has lost a spouse and hasn't remarried:

  2. A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.

  3. An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.

More examples

In context

  • The widow was dressed in black.

  • My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.

  • I had been feeling like a bowling-alley widow, but knew he loved the game, so I suggested we join a mixed league.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After the accident that killed her husband, the woman became a blank and moved to a new city.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English widow, 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”), G...