The Many Synonyms of Cuckold

One of the more glaring inequities of the English language is that it has a significantly larger number of words for “a man whose wife is unfaithful” than it does for “a woman whose man is unfaithful.” Cuckold is perhaps the best known of these words, and it has many synonyms, including (but by no means restricted to) cornute, cornuto, hoddy-doddy, hoddypoll, horn, ram, and wittol (a man who is aware of his wife’s infidelity and acquiesces to it). What of a woman whose husband is unfaithful? For that our language appears to have but a single word, and an obscure one at that: cuckquean.

Examples of cuckold in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Affleck, who once upon a time might’ve played one of those rivals, embraces the role of the quietly seething cuckold. — Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2022 The hackneyed premise about a film-nerd cuckold in need of psychoanalysis distracts from the real-life dilemma of personal betrayal. — Armond White, National Review, 4 Feb. 2022 And also, for some reason, making his rusty BFF Mater a cuckold. — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2021 Tom is also a cuckold: Shiv is cheating on him with her ex Nate (Ashley Zukerman), a floppy-haired political operative. — Meredith Blake, chicagotribune.com, 12 Aug. 2019 Even Shakespeare and Chaucer cracked wise about cuckolds, who were often depicted wearing horns. — Carl Zimmer, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cuckold.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.