# What is the opposite of Bachelor



## Anushka Athukorala

Hello Members

I have been looking for the opposite Bachelor for sometime but I found a word "spinster" in my dictionary and it is defined as
"an unmarried woman, usually one who is no longer young and seems unlikely to marry." 

what I would like to know is 
1. what word do we use to refer to a young woman rather than an old lady is not married and decided never to get married?
2. Do we use the same word Bachelor for an old man as well?


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## waltern

Well, there's "bachelorette" - I'm not sure how much it's used outside of the reality TV show of the same name, though!

"Spinster" (and to a somewhat lesser extent, "bachelor") are rather old-fashioned - usually we would just refer to an unmarried man or woman of any age as "single" (adj).


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## DaylightDelight

I've actually heard the words bachelor and bachelorette used in "bachelor party" and "bachelorette party".


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## You little ripper!

waltern said:


> Well, there's "bachelorette" - I'm not sure how much it's used outside of the reality TV show of the same name, though!


It's in a few dictionaries, one of which being _Dictionary.com._

Bachelorette
_an unmarried young woman_


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## rhitagawr

I'd never heard of _bachelorette_ and I wish I hadn't now. It sounds like one of those silly made-up words to me.
I agree with _Waltern_. I can't remember the last time I heard _spinster_ and _bachelor_. _Spinster_ can sounds rather negative - as though the lady has been left on the shelf. _Bachelor_ sounds more neutral - or even positive if you think of a gentleman who's enjoying being single. I suppose this reflects social values and people's attitude to the sexes.
_Spinster_ and _bachelor_ refer to people who are of an age when most people would be married - people over thirty, say, and not people in their twenties.


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## word nard

Bachelorette
_an unmarried young woman_


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## Rover_KE

One of the most common uses of _bachelor_ these days is 'The new billionaire Duke of Westminster is now one of the world's most eligible bachelors'.

The distinction nowadays between bachelor/spinster and husband/wife is not as clear as it once was. There are so many stable and permanent family groups where the parents are unmarried that they're just called _partners_.


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## velisarius

We tend not to categorise unmarried females these days. "She's single/unmarried". There's no special word for a female who has decided she never wants to marry. Anyway, she might change her mind at some point. 

"Spinster" is an old-fashioned concept. 

In what context were you thinking of using this word, Anushka?


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## stelingo

The opposite of bachelor is married.


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## Thomas Tompion

stelingo said:


> The opposite of bachelor is married.


This I doubt.  One is a noun, the other an adjective.


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## rhitagawr

Rover_KE said:


> One of the most common uses of _bachelor_ these days is 'The new billionaire Duke of Westminster is now one of the world's most eligible bachelors'.


But you wouldn't say _one of the world most eligible spinsters_ (see my previous post).


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## Loob

There is no opposite of _bachelor_.


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## elroy

Loob said:


> There is no opposite of _bachelor_.


 If we allow more than one word, then "married man" works, doesn't it?


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## suzi br

Loob said:


> There is no opposite of _bachelor_.



Surely it is husband?


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## Loob

elroy said:


> If we allow more than one word, then "married man" works, doesn't it?





suzi br said:


> Surely it is husband?


Neither of those fits with the question in post 1.


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## suzi br

Yes, I see that the detail of the question is about different words for male/female.  These are not opposites.  I suppose I am being pedantic about the word "opposite" and giving a literal answer.  The opposite of unmarried is married, whether male or female.


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## elroy

There are two questions in Post 1, and neither of them is "What is the opposite of a bachelor?", which if the question in the title. 

Regardless, "married man" is surely a valid answer to the question "What is the opposite of a bachelor?".

But maybe we're talking past each other. I'm honestly not sure what's going on in Post 1.


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## Hermione Golightly

Possible responses to #1 are: 

1. There is no 'opposite' to  Bachelor with a capital B just as there is no opposite to Master with a capital M, if you are talking about academic degrees.
2. These days, the acceptable word for describing _marital status _in everyday speech is 'single', for both men and women.
3. 'Spinster' is completely unacceptable these days.
4. 'Bachelorette' is high on my list of the most dreadful, ghastly awful words in English.


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## Anushka Athukorala

waltern said:


> Well, there's "bachelorette" - I'm not sure how much it's used outside of the reality TV show of the same name, though!
> 
> "Spinster" (and to a somewhat lesser extent, "bachelor") are rather old-fashioned - usually we would just refer to an unmarried man or woman of any age as "single" (adj).



Hello Waltern

Thank you very much for the opposite “bachelorette”.I looked up it in my Oxford advanced Learners Dictionary but there was no such word in it.


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## Anushka Athukorala

rhitagawr said:


> I'd never heard of _bachelorette_ and I wish I hadn't now. It sounds like one of those silly made-up words to me.
> I agree with _Waltern_. I can't remember the last time I heard _spinster_ and _bachelor_. _Spinster_ can sounds rather negative - as though the lady has been left on the shelf. _Bachelor_ sounds more neutral - or even positive if you think of a gentleman who's enjoying being single. I suppose this reflects social values and people's attitude to the sexes.
> _Spinster_ and _bachelor_ refer to people who are of an age when most people would be married - people over thirty, say, and not people in their twenties.



Hello rhitagawr

Thank you so much for the explanation and which means I can use

Spinster - young woman and an old lady is not married and decided never to get married.

Bachelor- young man who has decided not to get married and old man is not married.

Am I right?


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## Anushka Athukorala

word nard said:


> Bachelorette
> _an unmarried young woman_



Hello word nard

Thank you for the opposite but the problem is what British and American speakers say is quite different.


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## Anushka Athukorala

Rover_KE said:


> One of the most common uses of _bachelor_ these days is 'The new billionaire Duke of Westminster is now one of the world's most eligible bachelors'.
> 
> The distinction nowadays between bachelor/spinster and husband/wife is not as clear as it once was. There are so many stable and permanent family groups where the parents are unmarried that they're just called _partners_.



Hello Rover_KE

Thank you for mentioning the present social situation and judging from your explanation I think the difference may have disappeared.


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## Anushka Athukorala

velisarius said:


> We tend not to categorise unmarried females these days. "She's single/unmarried". There's no special word for a female who has decided she never wants to marry. Anyway, she might change her mind at some point.
> 
> "Spinster" is an old-fashioned concept.
> 
> In what context were you thinking of using this word, Anushka?



Hello velisarius

Thank you so much for your explanation and I think I found the answer to my question “There's no special word for a female who has decided she never wants to marry.”

The reason why I started thinking of a suitable word to describe an elderly lady who hasn’t married was that there is one lady who lives next door with her sister but this old ladies sister has kids. So I started wondering what is used to describe that lady and I had already known the word bachelor then I immediately looked up for that word thinking if it also had the definition of its female partner too but there was no definition so I decided to ask about it on this site.


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## Anushka Athukorala

rhitagawr said:


> But you wouldn't say _one of the world most eligible spinsters_ (see my previous post).



Hello rhitagawr

Thank you for mentioning that.


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## Anushka Athukorala

Loob said:


> There is no opposite of _bachelor_.



Hello Loob

Thank you very much for the answer.


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## Anushka Athukorala

Hermione Golightly said:


> Possible responses to #1 are:
> 
> 1. There is no 'opposite' to  Bachelor with a capital B just as there is no opposite to Master with a capital M, if you are talking about academic degrees.
> 2. These days, the acceptable word for describing _marital status _in everyday speech is 'single', for both men and women.
> 3. 'Spinster' is completely unacceptable these days.
> 4. 'Bachelorette' is high on my list of the most dreadful, ghastly awful words in English.



Hello Hermione Golightly

Thank you very much for your explanation. Reading all the post from both native British and American I think there is no particular word to describe the young lady who has decided not to get married so I think it is better to stick to single/married.


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## velisarius

Anushka Athukorala said:


> The reason why I started thinking of a suitable word to describe an elderly lady who hasn’t married was that there is one lady who lives next door with her sister but this old ladies sister has kids. So I started wondering what is used to describe that lady and I had already known the word bachelor then I immediately looked up for that word thinking if it also had the definition of its female partner too but there was no definition so I decided to ask about it on this site.



Thank you very much for the clear context. 

In very old-fashioned novels, a lady in the situation of your neighbour would have been called "a maiden aunt", and it was often her fate to have to help look after her nieces and nephews, in return for a place in the home of one of her sisters or brothers.

Today, people would just say (in BE) that she's "still single" or (if she's very old) "she's never been married".


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## Anushka Athukorala

velisarius said:


> Thank you very much for the clear context.
> 
> In very old-fashioned novels, a lady in the situation of your neighbour would have been called "a maiden aunt", and it was often her fate to have to help look after her nieces and nephews, in return for a place in the home of one of her sisters or brothers.
> 
> Today, people would just say (in BE) that she's "still single" or (if she's very old) "she's never been married".



Hello Velisarius

Thank you for the answer. now I understand and I will take your advice. it is the end of this post


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## rhitagawr

I don't think the opposite of _bachelor_ is _spinster_. It would be like saying _The opposite of bull is cow_. 
There's no implication that the person has taken some sort of vow never to get married. It just means that the person isn't married. 
I doubt if the Duke of Westminster goes around thinking _I'm one of the world's most eligible bachelors_ even if other people think he is. 
I suppose that because the opposite of _unmarried_ is _married_, _husband_ (or _married man_ if you don't mind two words, or_ married_ if you don't mind an adjective) is the nearest thing you're going to get to the opposite of _bachelor_. You'd say _He's a bachelor_. You wouldn't say _He's a husband_. You'd say _He's married_.


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## Anushka Athukorala

Hello rhitagawr

Thank you so much for the explanation & the examples. To sum up, judging from all the senior members answers including you,velisarius,loob and so on

Bachelor – a single man who is not married and opposite of it is a husband or a married man.

And I think I made a mistake in the topic of the question “what is the opposite of bachelor” but the content of the original question was

what I would like to know is
1. what word do we use to refer to a young woman rather than an old lady is not married and decided never to get married?
2. Do we use the same word Bachelor for an old man as well?

So I was asking about the female counterpart of bachelor and the second question. I’m extremely sorry about the mistake in the topic but I managed to learn a lot from all of your answers.


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## rhitagawr

Glad we could help.


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## Englishmypassion

I'm surprised that "maiden" wasn't suggested as a female equivalent of "bachelor" in this long thread. 
Thanks.


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## fiercediva

Englishmypassion said:


> I'm surprised that "maiden" wasn't suggested as a female equivalent of "bachelor" in this long thread.
> Thanks.



"Maiden aunt" was mentioned a few posts above yours, but usually "maiden" by itself refers to a younger unmarried woman then the OP wished to reference.


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## Englishmypassion

Thanks. But the OP said:



Anushka Athukorala said:


> what I would like to know is
> 1. what word do we use to refer to a young woman rather than an old lady is not married and decided never to get married?


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## JulianStuart

Englishmypassion said:


> I'm surprised that "maiden" wasn't suggested as a female equivalent of "bachelor" in this long thread.
> Thanks.


Maiden today often carries a meaning/nuance of "virgin", unspoilt etc or sounds simply archaic (like the original discussion about spinster)


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## velisarius

Young unmarried females are not nowadays assumed to be "maidens" (virgins). It's a very old-fashioned term in BE, whereas "bachelor" isn't. And a bachelor is simply unmarried, not virgin.

(crossposted)


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## fiercediva

Englishmypassion said:


> Thanks. But the OP said:



You're right, but then OP muddied the waters with this further explanation: "The reason why I started thinking of a suitable word to describe an elderly lady who hasn’t married was that there is one lady who lives next door with her sister but this old ladies sister has kids. So I started wondering what is used to describe that lady and I had already known the word bachelor then I immediately looked up for that word thinking if it also had the definition of its female partner too but there was no definition so I decided to ask about it on this site."


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## Hildy1

People used to say of an older single woman "she never married". I don't know if this is used now.


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## Englishmypassion

Thank you very much, Julian, Veli, FeirceDiva, Hildy and everybody else.


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## djmc

On marriage the woman is described as "spinster of this parish" so it is obviously still used.


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## london calling

djmc said:


> On marriage the woman is described as "spinster of this parish" so it is obviously still used.


Well, my mother's marriage certificate says 'Spinster' , but she got married in 1957.  And having got married in Italy I wouldn't know if they still use it in the UK. 

Edit. Found this in the Daily Telegraph (2005).


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