husband
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A married man.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
huhzbuhndSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhʌzbənd
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
A married man; a woman's partner in marriage
A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
uk
A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
The male of a pair of animals.
A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
A large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position.
verb
transitive
To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.
transitive
To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.
transitive
To conserve.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A married man; a woman's partner in marriage
Used this way, husband is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home and relationships 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
- Relationships
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use husband
- “My husband enjoys cooking dinner for us on Fridays.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Neither spouse can divulge confidential communications from the other while they were married.
A man who was formerly a certain woman's husband.
A husband who keeps house while his wife earns the family income.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: married man
Antonyms
Sense: married man
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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.