widow
/ˈwɪd.oʊ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.08 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
noun
A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.
Example Sentences
- "Now that he is a widow, he tries to win Olivia back through the songs and the music that brought them together all those years ago, leaving Olivia torn between moving forward with Josh or falling into the arms of the man she truly loves."
- "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."
- "And how many betting widows do I see at the hospital, who hardly see their husbands while the betting shops are open!"
- "Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now, My friend, the brother of my love. My Arthur! whom I shall not see Till all my widow’d race be run; Dear as the mother to the son, More than my brothers are to me."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ Proto-West Germanic *widuwā Old English widuwe Middle English widwe English widow PIE word *dwóh₁ 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. 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”), Galician and Portuguese viúva (“widow”), Italian vedova (“widow”), Romanian văduvă (“widow”), Ancient Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos, “bachelor”), Albanian ve (“widow, widower”), Belarusian удава́ (udavá, “widow”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene vdova (“widow”), Polish gdowa, wdowa (“widow”), Russian and Ukrainian вдова́ (vdová, “widow”), Serbo-Croatian udova, у̀дова (“widow”), Central Kurdish بێوە (bêwe, “widow”), Ossetian идӕдз (idæʒ, “widowed”), Persian بیوه (bive, bêva, “widow”), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā, “widow”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈwɪd.oʊ/
- British English: /ˈwɪd.əʊ/