WIDOWHOOD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does widowhood mean? 

• WIDOWHOOD (noun)
  The noun WIDOWHOOD has 2 senses:

1. the time of a woman's life when she is a widow

2. the state of being a widow who has not remarried

  Familiarity information: WIDOWHOOD used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WIDOWHOOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The time of a woman's life when she is a widow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("widowhood" is a kind of...):

time of life (a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state)

Derivation:

widow (a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarried)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being a widow who has not remarried

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("widowhood" is a kind of...):

marital status (the condition of being married or unmarried)

Derivation:

widow (a woman whose husband is dead especially one who has not remarried)

 Context examples 

She was as much convinced of his meaning to gain Anne in time as of his deserving her, and was beginning to calculate the number of weeks which would free him from all the remaining restraints of widowhood, and leave him at liberty to exert his most open powers of pleasing.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)