Levirate Definition

lĕvər-ĭt, -ə-rāt, lēvər-ĭt, -və-rāt
noun
A custom of the Jews in Biblical times by which a dead man's brother was obligated to marry the widow if there were no sons: Deut. 25:5-10
Webster's New World
(anthropology) The institution of levirate marriage.
Wiktionary
adjective

Having to do with one's husband's brother.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Levirate

Noun

Singular:
levirate
Plural:
levirates

Origin of Levirate

  • From Latin lÄ“vir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law") (from Proto-Indo-European *daiwos (“one's brother-in-law")) + -ate

    From Wiktionary

  • From Latin lēvir husband's brother daiwer- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Levirate Sentence Examples

  • Papers on "The Levirate and Polyandry," following up the line of his previous investigations (Fortnightly Review, 1877), were the last work he was able to publish.

  • In ecclesiastical legend and 2 For the principle of the Levirate illustrated in Gen.

  • The well-known custom which gives the nearest heir of the dead a right to inherit the widow is naturally distinct from the levirate, where it is the brother's duty to marry his widowed sister-in-law if childless, and where the eldest son succeeds to the name and inheritance of the deceased.

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Words Starting With

LLELEV

Words Ending With

ETEATE

Unscrambles

levirate

Words Starting With L and Ending With E

Starts With L & Ends With EStarts With LE & Ends With EStarts With L & Ends With TE

Word Length

8 Letter Words8 Letter Words Starting With L8 Letter Words Ending With E