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spouse

UK/spaʊ̯s/US/spaʊ̯s/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,104 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: spouses

A spouse is your husband or wife — one formal word for both. My spouse, a surviving spouse, spouse or partner.

It belongs to forms and law rather than to speech, and it is useful there precisely because it says nothing about sex. Spousal is the adjective. The Latin sponsus means betrothed, from spondere, to promise solemnly.

Abdalian, Leon H., 1884-1967 · Public domain

Definitions of spouse

  1. 1nounspouseA husband or wife.C1

    “Employees may bring their spouse or partner to the annual dinner.”

spouse is a marriage partner.

Where it comes from

Latin sponsus and sponsa mean bridegroom and bride, from spondere, to promise. Sponsor is the same root.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *spend-

  2. Latin

    spōnsus — bridegroom

  3. Old French

    espos

  4. Anglo-Norman

    espus

  5. Middle English

    spous

  6. English, today

    spouse

Built from

  • spōnsa · Latin — bride
  • spondeō · Latin — to vow, pledge

From Middle English spous, spouse, from Anglo-Norman espus, espuse and Old French espos, espose and by aphesis from Latin spōnsus (“bridegroom”), spōnsa (“bride”), from spondeō (“to vow, pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European spend-. Displaced native ġemaca. Related to espouse and sponsor.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Family & People

Practise this word

spouse in the wild

  • A female spouse is called a wife while a male spouse is called a husband.

    Spouse

  • First Lady or First Gentleman is a title used in some countries, especially presidential republics, most often for the spouse of the head of state.

    First lady

  • The term may also be used for the spouses of mayors, governors, et cetera.

    First lady

  • When it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other.

    Bigamy

  • A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died and who has not remarried.

    Widow

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the spondeō family

response

spouse — used about once every 1,749 pages · #6,104 · point at the bar for the others