A wife is a female lifetime partner in a continuing marital relationship. A wife may also be referred to as a spouse. The term continues to be applied to a woman who has separated from her husband and ceases to be applied to such a woman only when her marriage has come to an end following a legally recognised divorce or the death of her spouse. The rights and obligations of the wife in relation to her husband and others, and her status in the community and in law, varies between cultures and has varied over time. In a heterosexual relationship, a woman's spouse is her husband.
The term is most commonly applied to a woman in a legally sanctioned marriage, and not to a woman in another cohabitation relationship such as a concubine, mistress etc. However, a woman in a so-called common law marriage may describe herself as a common law wife, de facto wife, or simply a wife; but sometimes the female is described as "girlfriend" or "partner". Those seeking to advance gender neutrality may refer to both marriage partners as "spouses", and many countries are rewording their statute law by replacing "wife" and "husband" with "spouse". Also, in a polygamous marriage, each woman is described as a wife.
Read more about Wife: Summary, Related Terminology, Differences in Cultures, Expectation of Fidelity
Other articles related to "wife":
... to prevail upon King Anaxandridas to set aside his wife and take another ... Anaxandridas refused, claiming his wife was blameless, whereupon the ephors agreed to allow him to take a second wife without setting aside his first ... This second wife, a descendent of Chilon the Wise, promptly bore a son, Cleomenes ...
... Aesacus sorrowed for the death of his wife or would-be lover, a daughter of the river Cebren, and was transformed into a bird ... The Bibliotheca makes Aesacus son of Priam's first wife Arisbe, daughter of Merops ... In Apollodorus the deceased daughter of Cebren for whom Aesacus mourns is his wife named Asterope ...
... Leucippe, a daughter of Thestor, sister of Calchas and Theonoe Leucippe, the wife of Ilus and mother of Laomedon Leucippe, the wife of Thestius and ...
... Bó Cúailnge (the Cattle Raid of Cooley), his wife is the beautiful goddess, Fand ("Pearl of Beauty" or "A Tear" - later remembered as a "Fairy Queen", though earlier mentions point to her also being a sea ... Other sources say his wife was the goddess Áine, though she is at other times said to be his daughter ... came home with a victory because of a bargain made with Manannán (either by him, or by his wife) to let Manannán have a child by his wife ...
... Vlad's first wife bore him two sons Mihnea I "the Bad" (Mihnea I cel Rău, ?-1510) and Mihail (?-1485) ... A woodland archer, having seen the shadow of Vlad's wife behind a window, shot an arrow through the window into Vlad's main quarters with a message warning him that Radu's army was approaching ... Upon reading the message, Vlad's wife threw herself from the tower into a tributary of the Argeș River flowing below the castle, saying she would rather rot and be eaten by the fish of the Argeș than ...
Famous quotes containing the word wife:
“The frequency of personal questions grows in direct proportion to your increasing girth. . . . No one would ask a man such a personally invasive question as “Is your wife having natural childbirth or is she planning to be knocked out?” But someone might ask that of you. No matter how much you wish for privacy, your pregnancy is a public event to which everyone feels invited.”
—Jean Marzollo (20th century)
“A wife is property that one acquires by contract, she is transferable, because possession of her requires title; in fact, woman is, so to speak, only man’s appendage; consequently, slice, cut, clip her, you have all rights to her.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)