polygyny
/pəˈlɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.ni/noun
polygyny is spelled P-O-L-Y-G-Y-N-Y: 8 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 95,993rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, polygyny means “The state or practice of a man having more than one wife at a time; plurality of wives; marriage between one man and multiple wives” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of polygyny is polygynies.
How many letters and syllables are in polygyny?
| Letters | 8: P-O-L-Y-G-Y-N-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 10 million words; the 95,993rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is polygyny?
Polygyny appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 95,993rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce polygyny?
- /pəˈlɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.ni/
Polygyny has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-polygyny.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of polygyny
- polygynies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does polygyny mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The state or practice of a man having more than one wife at a time; plurality of wives; marriage between one man and multiple wives.
- 2
The condition of an ant colony that has multiple egg-laying queens.
- 3
Synonym of polygamy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Polygyny in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense plurality of wives at the same time:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does polygyny come from?
From Ancient Greek πολύ (polú, “many”) + γυνή (gunḗ, “woman, wife”). By surface analysis, poly- + -gyny.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).