widower

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈwɪdoʊɚ/ UK /ˈwɪdəʊə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a man whose spouse has died and who has not remarried

The elderly widower tended his late wife's roses every morning.

Thesaurus

Opposites

widow

Word family

Related forms widow widowhood

Etymology

From Middle English widewer, a masculine formation from widewe ('widow') with the agentive/masculine suffix -er, from Old English widuwe ('widow'), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ ('widow').

widuwe Old English *h₁widʰéwh₂ Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# widower

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈwɪdoʊɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈwɪdəʊə/

## Meanings
1. a man whose spouse has died and who has not remarried

## Examples
- The elderly widower tended his late wife's roses every morning.

## Antonyms
- widow

## Related Forms
- widow
- widowhood

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: widuwe
- Root: *h₁widʰéwh₂

## Etymology
From Middle English widewer, a masculine formation from widewe ('widow') with the agentive/masculine suffix -er, from Old English widuwe ('widow'), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ ('widow').

## AI Etymology
widower comes from Middle English widewer, a masculine formation from widewe ('widow') with the agentive/masculine suffix -er, from Old English widuwe ('widow'), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ ('widow'). The path is chiefly one of transmission: an older form is taken into English, with the word's shape and meaning carried through the language names and forms preserved in the history. In modern use, the noun sense is "a man whose spouse has died and who has not remarried", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as widow, widowhood, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old English widuwe, Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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