Skip to the word

Added 10 October 2026

spinster

/ˈspɪnstə/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about spinster at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

An elderly unmarried woman.
Someone who spins (who twists fibers into threads).

Origin

From Middle English spynnestere (“woman who spins fibre”), from c. 1350; equivalent to spin + -ster. The semantic development is from a historical notion of unmarried women spinning thread for a living.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word