Levirate
//ˈlɛvɪɹət// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir. countable
- 2 the biblical institution whereby a man must marry the widow of his childless brother in order to maintain the brother's line wordnet
- 3 The institution of levirate marriage.
"And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry."
Adjective
- 1 Having to do with one's husband's brother. not-comparable
Example
More examples"And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry."
Etymology
From Latin lēvir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dayh₂wḗr (“one's brother-in-law”).
Related phrases
More for "levirate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.