Goodwife

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A female head of a household. obsolete

    ""O my lord the Sultan," said the other [the Wazir], "verily women be weakly of wits, and haply this goodwife cometh hither to complain before thee against her goodman or some of her people.""

  2. 2
    A title of respect for a woman obsolete

    "Goodwife Hopkins"

  3. 3
    A title of respect for a woman. obsolete

    "Goodwife Hopkins"

Synonyms

All synonyms
mrsabbessbetter halfchatelaineconcubinedame

Example

More examples

""O my lord the Sultan," said the other [the Wazir], "verily women be weakly of wits, and haply this goodwife cometh hither to complain before thee against her goodman or some of her people.""

Etymology

From Middle English goodwyf, godwyf, godwif, equivalent to good + wife.

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