polygyny

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πολύ (polú, “many”) + γυνή (gunḗ, “woman, wife”); synchronically, poly- +‎ -gyny.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈlɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.ni/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

polygyny (countable and uncountable, plural polygynies)

1. The state or practice of having several wives at the same time; plurality of wives; marriage to several wives.
   • 1883, Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Sociology, page 685:

     We may infer that in most cases where polygyny exists, monogamy co-exists to a greater extent, and in all other cases to a considerable extent.

2. The condition of an ant colony that has multiple egg-laying queens.

Antonyms

• monogamy
• monogyny
• oligogyny
• polyandry

Hypernyms

• polygamy

Coordinate terms

• bigamy

Derived terms

• polygynist
• polygynous

Translations

plurality of wives at the same time

• Arabic: تَعَدُّد اَلزَّوْجَات m (taʕaddud az-zawjāt)
• Armenian: բազմակնություն (hy) (bazmaknutʻyun)
• Belarusian: многажо́нства n (mnohažónstva)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 一夫多妻 (zh) (yīfūduōqī), 一夫多妻制 (zh) (yīfūduōqīzhì)

• Esperanto: poligamio
• Finnish: monivaimoisuus, polygynia (fi)
• French: polygynie (fr) f
• German: Polygynie (de) f
• Hungarian: többnejűség (hu)
• Irish: polaigíneas m, il-leannántacht f
• Japanese: 一夫多妻 (ippu-tasai)
• Macedonian: многуже́нство n (mnogužénstvo), полигинија f (poliginija)
• Maori: tāne moe tokomaha
• Polish: poligynia (pl) f
• Portuguese: poliginia (pt) f
• Russian: многожёнство (ru) n (mnogožónstvo), полигини́я (ru) f (poliginíja)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: многоже́нство n, вишеженство n, полигѝнија f

  Roman: mnogožénstvo (sh) n, višeženstvo (sh) n, poligìnija (sh) f

• Spanish: poliginia (es) f
• Swedish: månggifte (sv) n
• Telugu: బహుభార్యాత్వము (te) (bahubhāryātvamu)
• Ukrainian: багатоже́нство (uk) n (bahatožénstvo)
• Welsh: amlwreiciaeth f