Spouse
//spaʊ̯s// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person in a marriage or marital relationship.
"People should treat their spouses with respect."
- 2 a person's partner in marriage wordnet
Verb
- 1 To wed; to espouse. dated
"Do you stand possess’d Of any proof against the honourableness Of Lady Auranthe, our new-spoused daughter?"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"She was an excellent spouse who stood by him through poverty."
Etymology
From Middle English spous, spouse, from Anglo-Norman espus m, espuse f and Old French espos m, espose f and by aphesis from Latin spōnsus m (“bridegroom”), spōnsa f (“bride”), from spondeō (“I vow, pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *spend-. Displaced native Old English ġemaca. Related to espouse and sponsor.
Related phrases
More for "spouse"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.