Adultress

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A woman who has sexual relations with someone other than her lawful spouse
2. A married woman engaged in an extramarital affair
3. A female who is unfaithful to her husband

Etymology: "Adultress" is a variant spelling of "adulteress," and its history runs through a noun that once meant something quite different from what it does now. The root is "adulter," an agent noun meaning one who commits adultery, and "adultery" itself comes from Latin "adulterium," built on the verb "adulterare," meaning to corrupt or to tamper with something. The original sense was about adulterating a thing, not about marriage vows. The female form came from adding the suffix "-ess," a common English device for marking women in roles like "lion" and "lioness," or "host" and "hostess." Here the suffix attaches to a noun that was already gendered in practice, which is why the pairing feels so natural to modern speakers. Later usage has shifted the pattern. The word "adulteress" is now often understood as the female counterpart to "adulterer," rather than as a derived form of "adulter," so the two words are treated as a matched set.

Synonyms: adulteress, cheater

Antonyms: faithful, loyal