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A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower
Dower

Dower or morning gift was a provision accorded by law to a wife for her support in the event that she should survive her husband . It was settlement on the bride by agreement at the time of the wedding, or provided by law....
, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical
Monarchy

A monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged in an individual, who is the head of state, often for Life tenure or until abdication, and "is wholly set apart from all other members of the state." The person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch....
 and aristocratic
Aristocracy

Aristocracy is a form of government, in which a few of the most prominent citizens rule. This may be a hereditary elite, or it may be by a system of cooption where a council of prominent citizens add leading soldiers, merchants, land owners, priests, and lawyers to their number....
 titles.

In loose popular usage, dowager as a stand-alone noun may refer to any elderly woman, especially one who is wealthy or behaves with dignity.

he United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, the widow of a peer
Peerage

The Peerage is a system of titles of nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title....
 may continue to use the style she had during her husband's lifetime, e.g.






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A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower
Dower

Dower or morning gift was a provision accorded by law to a wife for her support in the event that she should survive her husband . It was settlement on the bride by agreement at the time of the wedding, or provided by law....
, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical
Monarchy

A monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged in an individual, who is the head of state, often for Life tenure or until abdication, and "is wholly set apart from all other members of the state." The person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch....
 and aristocratic
Aristocracy

Aristocracy is a form of government, in which a few of the most prominent citizens rule. This may be a hereditary elite, or it may be by a system of cooption where a council of prominent citizens add leading soldiers, merchants, land owners, priests, and lawyers to their number....
 titles.

In loose popular usage, dowager as a stand-alone noun may refer to any elderly woman, especially one who is wealthy or behaves with dignity.

Use in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, the widow of a peer
Peerage

The Peerage is a system of titles of nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title....
 may continue to use the style she had during her husband's lifetime, e.g. "Countess of Loamshire
Placeholder name

Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context in which it is being discussed....
", provided that his successor, if any, has no wife to bear the plain title. Otherwise she more properly prefixes either her forename or the word Dowager, e.g. "Jane, Countess of Loamshire" or "Dowager Countess of Loamshire". (In any case she would continue to be called "Lady Loamshire".)

Monarchical dowagers

China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 recognized Empress dowager
Empress Dowager

Empress Dowager was the title given to the mother of a Emperor of China, Emperor of Japan, Emperor of Korea, or Emperor of Vietnam.The title was also given occasionally to another woman of the same generation, while a woman from the previous generation was sometimes given the title of Grand Empress Dowager....
s and Grand empress dowager
Grand Empress Dowager

The title Grand Empress Dowager was given to the grandmother or a woman from the grandmother generation of the China dynastic ruler. Some grand empress dowagers held Regent within the beginning years of reign of an underage or young emperor....
s.

Queen Dowager
Queen Dowager

A queen dowager or dowager queen is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. Its full meaning is clear from the two words from which it is composed: queen indicates someone who served as queen consort , while dowager indicates a widow who holds the title from her deceased husband....
 is used in the United Kingdom and several other countries.

In the fallen Russian imperial family
Romanov

The House of Romanov was the second and last monarchy dynasty of Russia, which ruled the country from 1613 to 1917. From 1762 until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire was ruled for five generations by a line of the House of Oldenburg descended from the marriage of a Romanov grand duchess to the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp....
, the term "Dowager Empress" was used to describe the wife of a deceased emperor
Emperor

An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress is the female equivalent. As a title, "empress" may indicate the wife of an emperor or a woman who rules in her own right ....
.

Examples

Following the annulment of her marriage
Marriage

Marriage is a social, spirituality, or law union of individuals. This union may also be called matrimony, while the ceremony that marks its beginning is usually called a wedding and the married status created is sometimes called wedlock....
 to King Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lordship of Ireland and claimant to the Early Modern France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII of England....
, Katherine of Aragon was styled either "Princess Dowager of Wales" or "Dowager Princess of Wales" in consequence of her previous marriage (1501) to Henry's older brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales
Arthur, Prince of Wales

Arthur, Prince of Wales was the first son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and therefore, heir to the throne of England and Wales....
 (died 1502).

Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager CixiEmpress Dowager Cixi#Names of Empress Dowager Cixi , popularly known in China as the West Dowager Empress , was from the Manchu Yehe Nara Clan....
 was referred to as the Empress Dowager of China.

Helen E. Hokinson, a cartoonist for the New Yorker
New Yorker

New Yorker may refer to:* A resident of New York state * A resident of New York City * The New Yorker, a magazine* New Yorker , a German clothing company...
, was best known for her sketches of American dowagers from the 1920's though the 1940's.

Following the death of Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer
Edward Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer

Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, Royal Victorian Order was the son of Albert Edward John Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer and Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer, the daughter of James Albert Edward Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn, and the father of Diana, Princess of Wales....
 in 1992, his widow, Raine, ceased to use the style Countess Spencer, becoming Raine, Dowager Countess Spencer. Her stepdaughter-in-law, Victoria, became Countess Spencer.

In the 1997 movie Anastasia
Anastasia (1997 film)

Anastasia is an Academy Award nominated Cinema of the United States animation musical film Film producer and Film director by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman at Fox Animation Studios, and was released on November 14, 1997 by 20th Century Fox....
, the term is said many times to address the Dowager Empress Marie
Dagmar of Denmark

Dagmar of Denmark may refer to:* Queen Dagmar of Denmark , see Margarethe of Bohemia* Princess Dagmar of Denmark , youngest child and fourth daughter of Frederick VIII of Denmark and his wife, Princess Louise of Sweden and Norway....
, Anastasia's grandmother.

In the Princess Diaries
The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries is the most notable series of novels by Meg Cabot in the chick-lit genre, and the title of the The Princess Diaries , published in 2000....
 books Mia's grandmother is the Dowager Princess
Queen Dowager

A queen dowager or dowager queen is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. Its full meaning is clear from the two words from which it is composed: queen indicates someone who served as queen consort , while dowager indicates a widow who holds the title from her deceased husband....
 of Genovia, although she is simply known as "the Queen" in the films
The Princess Diaries (film)

The Princess Diaries is a comedy-drama film and the film adaptation of Meg Cabot's 2000 The Princess Diaries. The film stars Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis, a teenager who discovers that she is the heir to the throne of the fictional Genovia, ruled by her grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi, who is portrayed by Julie Andrews....
.