Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A marriage partner; a husband or wife.
- v. Archaic To marry; wed.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A married person, husband or wife; either one of a married pair.
- To take for a husband or a wife; wed; espouse.
- To give in marriage.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A man or woman engaged or joined in wedlock; a married person, husband or wife.
- n. obsolete A married man, in distinction from a
spousess ormarried woman ; a bridegroom or husband. - v. obsolete To wed; to espouse.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person's partner in marriage
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman espus, espuse and Old French espos, espose and by aphasis from Latin spōnsus ("bridegroom"), spōnsa ("bride"), from spondere ("to vow, to pledge"), from Proto-Indo-European *spend-. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French spous, from Latin spōnsus, from past participle of spondēre, to pledge; see spend- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term spouse is applied to married people until their marriage is consummated”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy
“The new marriage licenses - which add the term spouse - will be distributed to town and city clerk offices across the state in advance of the same-sex marriage law taking effect July 24.”
“Killing your spouse is an effective way of ending an argument but that doesn't make it OK; it's still murder and still illegal.”
“Section 3 of DOMA provides that for all purposes under federal law, the word "marriage" means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word "spouse" refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.”
“Your spouse is a veteran who awakes in the night in a sweat from nightmares and has anger outbursts during the day.”
The Huffington Post: Lloyd I. Sederer, MD: Finding the Right Psychiatrist
“Specifically, from 1973 through 2008, the percent who say that "a married person having sexual relations with someone other than their spouse is always wrong" has steadily decreased.”
“Or tell you that your spouse is always in church and volunteers and because you don't the house the car the kids and most of your salary goes to them, and the only way to change that is to dedicate yourself to the church and volunteer and prove your commitment to God.”
“It turns out that in eight states, plus the District of Columbia, getting beaten up by your spouse is a pre-existing condition.”
“As an example, in eight states plus the District of Columbia, getting beaten up by your spouse is a PRE-EXISTING CONDITION.”
“To the newly united, Shallal recommends making sure your spouse is also your friend.”
The Washington Post: Local professionals share their tips on what makes a marriage work
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spouse’.
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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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[Open] Infrequentative
Non-frequentative verbs which also have a frequentative form (which you may add to the list “Frequentative”, if you like)
Examples include bob (bobble), busk (bustle), dab (dabble), ho...hove, stut, wag, dab, dart, spouse, sault, prate, swag, visé, cater, nose and 33 more...
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Hearticulating
All sorts of names or terms for romantic partners: vague, clinical, physical, sleazy, cheesy, co-dependent, demeaning, sarcastic, or the dutifully committed. This is to provide a wide-range of le...
couple, partner, lover, sweetheart, significant other, confidant, consort, mate, better half, paramour, accomplice, counterpart and 52 more...
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Mawidge is what bwings us togevaah
Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage . . .
chichevache, bicorne, uxorovalent, uxoravalent, uxorious, unfellowed, azygophrenia, agapetae, agunah, anaxiphilia, anuloma, pratiloma and 28 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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GMAT
part of speech, frown, brow, immensely, immense, incomprehensible, toil, concision, concise, proper noun, hyphenated, dash and 190 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 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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deegee's Words
pay-per-view, vitriol, delectable, snarky, unflinching, forsake, pervasive, inconsequential, unnerving, allure, endearing, unalloyed and 414 more...
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♡LOVE and things like it♡
dedicated to my man Steven, without whom i would be addicted to drugs, lying in a gutter, hating myself, or hooking somewhere :)
affectionate, amative, amatory, amiable, ammophilous, amorous, ardent, attached to, attracted to, beloved, bewitching, bitten and 404 more...
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words I remember first encountering
fetlock, artefact, quandary, asyndeton, chiasmus, enjambement, vehemently, vituperative, decorum, sable, scansion, diapason and 75 more...
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the hate list
words that give me the heebidie jeebidies
suffragette, get 'er done, fringe, causeway, twee, jumper, tgif, actually, syringe, seltzer, raisin, whited sepulchre and 72 more...
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participation
parade, pare, parlay, parry, parure, apparatus, apparel, comprador, disparate, emperor, imperative, imperator and 86 more...
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Ugly Words
hoary, coarse, ignoramus, gout, visceral, writhe, shriek, sour, move, unctuous, psoriasis, echinacea and 66 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spouse.
Prolagus frindley would link to slice, now. Jun 21, 2008
bilby I wish. But all I hear is:
"Professors and their louse-sucking, mousey, cows of house-vowed spouses are invited to the Garden Party..."
I just can't be faithful to an -ouse. Call me philandering, but other word endings seduce me by night and by day. May 7, 2008
reesetee Now, see? Spice sounds so much nicer than spouse. May 7, 2008
frindley Plural: spice, of course.
As in "Professors and their spice are invited to the Garden Party…" May 7, 2008