polygyny

American  

[puh-lij-uh-nee] / pəˈlɪdʒ ə ni /

noun

1. the practice or condition of having more than one wife at one time.

2. (among male animals) the habit or system of having two or more mates, either simultaneously or successively.

3. (among social insects) the condition of having two or more functioning queens in a colony.

4. Botany. the state or condition of having many pistils or styles.

---

polygyny British  

/ pəˈlɪdʒɪnɪ /

noun

1. the practice or condition of being married to more than one wife at the same time Compare polygamy

2. the practice in animals of a male mating with more than one female during one breeding season

3. the condition in flowers of having many carpels

---

Other Word Forms

• polygynist noun
• polygynous adjective

Etymology

Origin of polygyny

1770–80; < Greek polygýn ( aios ) having many wives ( see poly-, gyn-) + -y ³

Example Sentences

While polygyny - the marriage of a man to several women - is allowed in South Africa, such relationships are usually registered as customary marriages and are not celebrated in church.

From BBC • May 3, 2025

Adult relationships vary in form across societies and include not only the type most common around the world today — heterosexual monogamy — but also same-sex marriage, nonmarital unions, polyamory, polygyny and polyandry.

From Washington Post • Jun. 17, 2022

A third type of polygyny is a lek system.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

That polygyny is bad for women is not necessarily intuitive.

From Slate • Jan. 30, 2012

Our polygyny has no legal existence, and therefore its obligations can have no legal existence.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Ellis, Havelock