housewife
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A woman whose main employment is homemaking, maintaining the upkeep of her home and tending to household affairs.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
howswyfSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhaʊswaɪf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
plural "housewives"
The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.
A wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income
plural "housewives"
A woman whose main employment is homemaking, maintaining the upkeep of her home and tending to household affairs; often, such a woman whose sole [unpaid] employment is homemaking.
plural "housewifes"
A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work.
verb
To manage with skill and economy.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (plural "housewives") The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.
Used this way, housewife is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use housewife
- “My grandmother was a dedicated housewife, always managing the home.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: wife of a householder
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.