viuda

From Latin vidua, following metathesis.

viuda f (plural viudes)

1. widow (a woman whose husband has died)

• viudu

From Latin vidua.

In the Middle Ages, jurists introduced a learned Latin borrowing vídua to replace the inherited Old Catalan form viuva (from a Vulgar Latin *viduva). The current form viuda supposedly emerged as a compromise between the two forms.^[1] The masculine form was derived from the feminine. Cf. also Spanish viuda, which may have influenced it.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbiw.ðə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈviw.ðə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈviw.ða]

viuda f sg

1. feminine singular of viudo

viuda f (plural viudes, masculine viudo, masculine plural viudos)

1. widow
2. eagle ray

   Synonym: milana

• vidu

• “viuda”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “viuda”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “viuda” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “viuda”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Inherited from Spanish viuda (“widow”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbjuda/, [ˈbju.d̪a]
• Hyphenation: viu‧da

viuda (masculine viudo)

1. widow

Inherited from Old Spanish viuda, vibda, bibda, biuda, from Latin vidua, following metathesis.^[1]

The Spanish word may have had some later influence from the Latin in the Middle Ages; compare the strictly popular Old Spanish form viuva, which is the form also found in Portuguese and Old Catalan, deriving from a Latin *viduva.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbjuda/ [ˈbju.ð̞a]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uda
• Syllabification: viu‧da

viuda f (plural viudas, masculine viudo, masculine plural viudos)

1. widow
2. dowager

viuda

1. feminine singular of viudo

• “viudo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025