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# wife

«wife» in Mova's school dictionary: **the woman a person is married to** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a wife, wives)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A wife is the woman a person is married to. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#m1)

2) (old) In old stories and old phrases, "wife" can mean simply a woman, as in "old wives' tale". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories and family trees it shows who is married to whom: "husband and wife". In word problems it names family members who share things or work together. Phrases: husband and wife, his wife, ex-wife, old wives' tale (a common belief that is not true).

### examples

- Mr Patel's wife is a nurse. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x1)
- The farmer and his wife milked the cows. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x2)
- They became husband and wife at the wedding. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x3)
- My uncle's wife is my aunt. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x4)
- The king and his wife waved from the balcony. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x5)
- "Cracking your knuckles gives you big hands" is just an old wives' tale. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x6)
- A man and his wife share 24 apples equally, so each gets 12. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x7)
- His wife drove the kids to footy practice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x8)
- But his wife called after him:-- [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/#x9)

### note

Irregular plural: one wife, two wives (f changes to v). Possessive: "his wife's car". "Old wives' tale" means a myth, not a story about wives. The partner word is "husband"; "spouse" or "partner" covers either.

### In the corpora

- [Remarrying means marrying again after a divorce or after a husband or wife has died.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/16-new-partners-and-step-families/15/)
- [An older person who finds a new partner after losing a husband or wife has not forgotten the one who died.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/17-gran-cousins-and-the-whole-family/18/)
- [A widow is a woman whose husband has died, and a widower is a man whose wife has died.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/24-when-someone-dies/18/)
- [He had a great many wives, and most of them quarrelled all day, which made him miserable.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/4/)
- [Having many wives was a custom of some old kings; today in most countries a person may be married to only one person.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/96-justso-butterfly-1-the-boast/21/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wife» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wife/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.