Dowager

//ˈdaʊədʒə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A widow holding property or title derived from her late husband.

    "A reclusive dowager owned the pastures across the river, and her farmhands ran beef cattle on them."

  2. 2
    a widow holding property received from her deceased husband wordnet
  3. 3
    The widow of the holder of a title (usually a member of the peerage or a baronet); used in combination with the title she held during her husband's lifetime.

    "the Earl and Countess of Whiteacre, and the Earl's mother, the dowager Countess of Whiteacre"

  4. 4
    Any lady of dignified bearing, especially an older one.

    "A stately dowager entered the ballroom, and all eyes were upon her."

Synonyms

All synonyms
abbessbeldamchatelainecronedamedaughter of eve

Example

More examples

"Empress Dowager Cixi held control in China for forty-seven years."

Etymology

From Middle French douagere, douagiere, from douage (“dower”), from the verb douer (“to endow”), from Latin dōtō (“to endow”), from dōs (“dowry”).

Related phrases

dowager's humpempress dowagerqueen dowager

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.