widower
/ˈwɪdoʊɚ/
"widower" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“widower” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,087 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #28,087
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A man whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried); a man in relation to his late spouse; masculine of widow.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | widower |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɪdoʊɚ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #28,087 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “widower” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for widower is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɪdoʊɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,087 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A man whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried); a man in relation to his late spouse; masculine of widow.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for widower, with forms such as "iwdower", "wdiower", and "widdower". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "wider", "widow", "widowed", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English widwer, equivalent to widow + -er. The correct English form is widower, spelled W-I-D-O-W-E-R.
Definition
- 1A man whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried); a man in relation to his late spouse; masculine of widow.
Etymology
From Middle English widwer, equivalent to widow + -er.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iwdower,wdiower,widdower,widoewr,widowerr,widowre,widowwer,widwoer,wiodwer,wwidower
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of widower - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “widower”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-D-O-W-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɪdoʊɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wider” - see the side-by-side comparison. widower vs wider
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.