Editing Wife (section)

==Related terminology==
[[File:Bride at Nikah.jpg|thumb|A young bride at her ''[[nikah]]'' (Islamic wedding)]]
A woman on her wedding day is usually described as a [[bride]]''.'' Occasionally, this naming is considered appropriate after the [[wedding]] ceremony or the [[honeymoon]], though she is typically called a wife within the marriage. If she is marrying a man, her partner is known as the [[groom|bridegroom]] during the wedding and within the marriage is called her ''[[husband]]''. If she is marrying a woman, each partner is referred to as a wife.

In the older customs, which are still followed by the [[Roman Catholic]] ritual<!-- and elsewhere !-->, the word ''bride'' actually means [[fiancée]], and applies up to the exchange of matrimonial consent (the actual marriage act). From that point, even while the rest of the very ceremony is ongoing, the woman is a wife and no longer considered as a bride. Hence, the bridal couple is no longer referred to as such, but instead as the newlywed couple or "[[Newlywed|newlyweds]]".

Unlike [[mother]], a term that puts a woman into the context of her children, "Wife" refers to the institutionalized relation to the other spouse. In some societies, especially historically, a ''[[concubine]]'' was a woman who was in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented relationship with a man who could not be married to her, often due to a difference in social status.

The term ''wife'' is most commonly applied to a woman in a union sanctioned by law (including [[religious law]]), but not to a woman in an informal [[cohabitation]] relationship, which may be known as a girlfriend, partner, cohabitant, significant other, [[concubine]], [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]], etc. However, a woman in a so-called [[common law marriage]] may describe herself as a common law wife, de facto wife, or simply a wife. Those seeking to advance [[gender neutrality]] may refer to both marriage partners as "spouses". In response to this naming change, many countries and societies are rewording their statute law by replacing "wife" and "husband" with "spouse". A former wife whose spouse is deceased is a [[widow]]''.''