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widow

wid·ow/ˈwɪd.oʊ/noun, verb

widow is spelled W-I-D-O-W: 5 letters and 2 syllables (wid·ow). It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, widow means “A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of widow is widows.

How many letters and syllables are in widow?

Letters5: W-I-D-O-W
Syllables2: wid·ow
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is widow?

Widow appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th 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 widow?

  • UK /ˈwɪd.əʊ/
  • US /ˈwɪd.oʊ/

Widow has 2 syllables, split wid·ow in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-widow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with widow?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as widow from its last stressed vowel (/ɪdoʊ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of widow

  • widows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • widowing participle, present
  • widowed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does widow mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

    Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).

  3. 3

    informalA woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc.

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

  4. 4

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

  5. 5

    A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.

  6. 6

    Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).

verb

  1. 1

    To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.

  2. 2

    To strip of anything valued.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo endow with a widow's right.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo be widow to.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Widow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchveuve (woman whose spouse has died), chien (card games: additional hand dealt face down)
GermanWitwe (woman whose spouse has died), Hurenkind (single line of type carried over to the next…)
Portugueseviúva (woman whose spouse has died), viúvo (person whose spouse has died), viúva negra (spider of the genus Latrodectus)
Spanishviuda (woman whose spouse has died), enviudar (to make a widow or widower)

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 widow come from?

From Middle English widwe, 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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after widow