The King, to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old fairy, issued orders forbidding any one, on pain of death, to spin with a distaff and spindle, or to have a spindle in his house.
Source: tatoeba (6211728)
Distaff
//ˈdɪstɑːf//
Synonyms for "distaff" (40 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (8)
Strong matches (12)
Related words (20)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
7 entriesAntonyms
1 entriesSynonyms
1 entriesRelated terms
2 entriesderived
3 entriesis a
2 entriespart of
1 entriesrelated to
16 entriessimilar
2 entriesTranslations
117 translations across 46 languages.
Ancient Greek
2 entries- ἠλακάτη noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- ἠλακάτη noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Arabic
2 entries- رُكَّة noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- عَرْنَاس noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Aramaic
3 entries- ארנס noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- עַרְנָסָא noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- ܥܱܪܢܳܣܴܐ noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Bashkir
1 entries- ҡолға noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Belarusian
1 entries- прасніца noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Breton
1 entries- kegel noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Bulgarian
4 entries- женски adj (of, relating to, or characteristic of women)
- женска работа noun (anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only)
- ху́рка noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- ху́рка noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Catalan
1 entries- filosa noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 卷线杆 noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Czech
2 entries- přeslice noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- přeslice noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Danish
3 entries- rok noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- spinderok noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- ten noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Dutch
4 entries- rokken noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- rokken noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- spinrokken noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- spinrokken noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Faroese
1 entries- rokkur noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Finnish
4 entries- kehräpuu noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- kuontalonpidin noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- rukinlapa noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- tortti noun (part of a spinning wheel)
French
2 entries- quenouille noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- quenouille noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Galician
2 entries- roca noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- roca noun (part of a spinning wheel)
German
4 entries- Kunkel noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- Kunkel noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- Rocken noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- Rocken noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Greek
3 entries- ηλακάτη noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- ρόκα noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- ρόκα noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Hebrew
4 entries- כִּישׁוֹר noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- כִּישׁוֹר noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- פֶּלֶךְ noun (anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only)
- פֶּלֶךְ noun (women considered as a group)
Hungarian
1 entries- guzsaly noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Icelandic
1 entries- kven adj (of, relating to, or characteristic of women)
Italian
4 entries- donnesco adj (of, relating to, or characteristic of women)
- femminile adj (of, relating to, or characteristic of women)
- conocchia noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- conocchia noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Japanese
2 entries- 女性の仕事 noun (anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only)
- 糸巻き棒 noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Kabyle
1 entries- taruka noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Latin
1 entries- colus noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Navajo
1 entries- beeʼadizí noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Old Norse
1 entries- rokkr noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Ottoman Turkish
1 entries- اوركه noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Persian
2 entries- دشکی noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- دشکی noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Polish
4 entries- kobieca praca noun (anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only)
- kobieca robota noun (anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only)
- przęślica noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- przęślica noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Portuguese
2 entries- roca noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- roca noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Punjabi
1 entries- ਤੱਕਲ਼ੀ noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Romanian
1 entries- furcă noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Romansch
1 entries- rocca noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Russian
4 entries- же́нский adj (of, relating to, or characteristic of women)
- пря́слица noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- пря́слица noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- пря́слице noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Scottish Gaelic
2 entries- maide-snìomh noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- maide-snìomh noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Serbo-Croatian
4 entries- prȅslica noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- prȅslica noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- ženska posla noun (anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only)
- пре̏слица noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Sicilian
3 entries- cunòcchia noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- ruccheḍḍu noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- spagnuletta noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Slovene
2 entries- preslica noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- preslica noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Spanish
2 entries- rueca noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- rueca noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Swedish
4 entries- kvinnlig adj (of, relating to, or characteristic of women)
- kvinnogöra noun (anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only)
- linstav noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- rockhuvud noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Turkish
1 entries- öreke noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Ukrainian
4 entries- пря́сельце noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- пря́сельце noun (part of a spinning wheel)
- пря́слице noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- пря́слице noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Volapük
2 entries- spulömastaf noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
- spulömastaf noun (part of a spinning wheel)
Walloon
1 entries- kinoye noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Welsh
1 entries- cogail noun (device to which fibres are attached for temporary storage)
Sample sentences
11 total sentences available.
The spindle and the distaff.
Source: tatoeba (9011310)
She took the distaff and the wool she had just unraveled in order to begin spinning.
Source: tatoeba (13343216)
Then hadſt thou had an excellent head of haire. […] Excellent, it hangs like flax on a diſtaffe: & I hope to ſee a huſwife take thee between her legs, & ſpin it off.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 11 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.