Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The condition or practice of having more than one wife at one time.
- n. Zoology A mating pattern in which a male mates with more than one female in a single breeding season.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Marriage or cohabitation of one man with more than one woman at the same time; polygamy as practised by the male. Polygyny is more frequent than polyandry, being the usual case of polygamy as practised by man and the lower animals.
- n. Of a male animal, the state of having more than one female mate.
Wiktionary
- n. The state or practice of having several wives at the same time; plurality of wives; marriage to several wives - H. Spencer
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state or practice of having several wives at the same time; marriage to several wives.
WordNet 3.0
- n. having more than one wife at a time
Etymologies
- From Greek πολύ (poly, "many") + γυνή (gyne, "woman, wife"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“That latter is exceedingly rare, which is why the researchers use the term polygyny and not the often misused polygamy, which refers to multiple partners for both sexes.”
“Michael E — the relationship between war and larger scale polygyny is interesting, as there is a positive feedback loop.”
“Michael Ejercito says: newscaper: Michael E — the relationship between war and larger scale polygyny is interesting, as there is a positive feedback loop.”
“The evidence of human history is strong that polygamy - which in practice has overwhelmingly been polygyny, that is, the marriage of one man to many women - has been oppressive to women, all the way from the harems of the ancient kings of Persia to a contemporary sect in southeastern B.C. Moreover, polygyny also discriminated against men of less power and wealth.”
“This ruling did not deal with issues such as polygyny (the practice of marrying more than one wife), the status of respective spouses, maintenance obligations, and marriage termination.”
“The more proper term for what Mormons practiced would be "polygyny," or "multiple wives," though a bit of polyandry "multiple husbands" did creep in there at the beginningmuch to the distress of the Saints to whom this fact is pointed out.”
Yet another memoir excerptI call this one "Prophet Sharing"
“The most common variation, and that which most clearly possesses a biological foundation, is the tendency to polygyny, which is found at all stages of culture, even, in an unrecognized and more or less promiscuous shape, in the highest civilization. [”
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society
“Further, polygamy (more properly polygyny) only arises in more widespread form lalter when human cultures developed enough that significant inequality between males could arise (wrt them having enough resources to to support multiple ‘wives’ and children).”
“Michael Ejercito says: newscaper: Further, polygamy (more properly polygyny) only arises in more widespread form lalter when human cultures developed enough that significant inequality between males could arise (wrt them having enough resources to to support multiple ‘wives’ and children).”
“South African family jurisprudence grants legal recognition to both same-sex marriage and polygyny, while the United States prohibits and resists both.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘polygyny’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Greek to me
Gordian knot, Proteus, sisyphean, eudemonia, glossolalia, hemorrhage, hamadryad, aphotic, tautogeneity, anthropomorphism, polygamy, polygyny and 37 more...
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Suchlongwordswithsomanyletters.
Hoarded.
chargoggagoggmanc..., aquaethylenediami..., taramasalata, palaeacanthocephala, tathagatagarbha, tarantarratara, adamantoblastomata, astragalocalcaneal, calcaneoastragalar, hubbubbubboo, flibbertigibbet, bubbybush and 330 more...
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C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Anthropology
Words used in anthropology and in its sub-disciplines, such as zooarchaeology.
bonobo, troglodyte, sus scrofa, canis lupus famil..., canis lupus, castor canadensis, zooarchaeology, archaeology, anthropology, australopithecus ..., australopithecine, linnaean and 13 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for polygyny.
Prolagus In zoology, polygyny also refers to ant colonies with multiple queens. Interestingly, the adjective form can be any of the following:
- polygyne
- polygynous
- polygynic Apr 16, 2010