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":
... 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 ... 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 Arge ...
... 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 ...
... 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 ...
... a daughter of Thestor, sister of Calchas and Theonoe Leucippe, the wife of Ilus and mother of Laomedon Leucippe, the wife of Thestius and mother of Iphicles ...
... According to Táin 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 ... Other sources say his wife was the goddess Áine, though she is at other times said to be his daughter ... because of a bargain made with Manannán (either by him, or by his wife) to let Manannán have a child by his wife ...
Famous quotes containing the word wife:
“I know one husband and wife who, whatever the official reasons given to the court for the break up of their marriage, were really divorced because the husband believed that nobody ought to read while he was talking and the wife that nobody ought to talk while she was reading.”
—Vera Brittain (1893–1970)
“Can you support the expense of a husband, hussy, in gaming, drinking and whoring? Have you money enough to carry on the daily quarrels of man and wife about who shall squander most?”
—John Gay (1685–1732)