spouse
noun
Simple meaning
A person's partner in marriage.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
spowsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspaʊs
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 person's partner in marriage
A person in a marriage or marital relationship.
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 person in a marriage or marital relationship.
Used this way, spouse 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 spouse
- “People should treat their spouses with respect.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to A person's partner in marriage.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A person (not necessarily a spouse) with whom you cohabit and share a long-term sexual relationship.
A person who was formerly a spouse.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A person (not necessarily a spouse) with whom you cohabit and share a long-term sexual relationship.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.