Meaning & use
concubine
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Meanings
nouncountableold-fashioned
In some societies in the past, a woman who lived with a man and had a recognized but lower status than his wife.
Grammar: Takes an article: a concubine; mostly found in history writing.
Patterns
- a concubine of someone
- take a concubine
The emperor kept several concubines in the palace.
Historians study the lives of concubines in ancient China.
She was a concubine of the king and her children had limited rights.
nouncountableold-fashioneddisapproving
A woman who lives with a man as his partner without being legally married to him.
Grammar: Rare today, and can sound insulting.
Patterns
- live as someone's concubine
Old laws sometimes distinguished a wife from a concubine.
The novel describes a woman who became a nobleman's concubine.
Word forms
| plural | concubines |
|---|
Common combinations
- royal concubine
- A royal concubine might rise in rank by bearing an heir.
- imperial concubine
- An imperial concubine lived inside the palace.
- take a concubine
- The ruler took a concubine.
- wives and concubines
- The court included wives and concubines.
- son of a concubine
- He was the son of a concubine.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mistress
- Mistress is the more common modern word for a woman in a secret relationship with a married man, with no official status.
- consort
- Consort is a respectful word for the spouse of a ruler and implies higher official status.
- paramour
- Paramour is a literary word for a lover, often in a forbidden relationship.
Opposites
Word family
- concubinage noun
- the practice of having concubines
- concubinal adjective
- relating to concubines (rare)
Commonly confused: concubine or cucumber?
concubine vs cucumber
Cucumber is a vegetable; concubine only looks a little like it in spelling.
Practice
In many historical societies, a concubine had ___ than a legal wife.
Choose one answer.
A concubine was recognized but ranked below the wife. The other options either reverse or overstate this.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “concubine”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.