In a family, a spouse was simply a person to whom another was married, generally as a life partner. (ENT: "Babel One"; VOY: "Alter Ego") In many cases, the term may be synonymous with mate. (ENT: "Carbon Creek")
Familial relationships
Female
A female spouse was known as a wife or a bride. A wife whose spouse was deceased was a widow, while a divorced wife was known as an ex-wife. (Star Trek, TOS: "Wolf in the Fold"; VOY: "Fair Haven"; DS9: "Rejoined")
Beverly Crusher became a widow at the age of thirty. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")
Enina Tandro became a widow when her husband, General Ardelon Tandro, died. (DS9: "Dax")
Male
A male spouse was known as a husband or (bride)groom. (TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren", "Elaan of Troyius"; TNG: "Haven", "Cost of Living", Star Trek Nemesis) A husband of a deceased spouse was a widower, while a divorced husband was known as an ex-husband. (ENT: "Storm Front"; TNG: "Dark Page", "Unification II")
While he and Kevin Riley were beginning to suffer from polywater intoxication in 2266, Hikaru Sulu remarked that, for reasons not yet known to him, he was "sweating like a bridegroom," possibly attributing it to Psi 2000 or Joe Tormolen's death. Riley admitted the same was true of him, too. (TOS: "The Naked Time")
Tavnian weddings required the groom to stand before the bride and, with family and friends as audience, explain why he wished to marry her, thus convincing her to do so. If anyone doubted his sincerity, they could challenge whether the marriage was valid or not. (DS9: "The Muse")
Jadzia Dax, or rather the Dax symbiont, had gone through two Trill weddings as a groom by 2374. (DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited")
Other
Additional terms existed for polygamous relationships, as was the case in the Bolian culture which identified co-husbands. (DS9: "Field of Fire") In the case of Denobulans, one would refer to their spouse as their "third husband", "second wife", etc., or the relationship between two male spouses as "my first wife's third husband." (ENT: "Stigma", "Zero Hour")
Customs
According to T'Pol, in Vulcan culture, "it was customary for a husband and wife to reside together for at least one Vulcan year." (ENT: "Breaking the Ice")
In Trill culture, in order for the symbiont to move on from host to host, it has to learn to let go of the previous host's past, including parents, siblings, children, and spouses. (DS9: "Rejoined", "Afterimage")
On Cardassia, the spouse of an offender was the only friend or family member solely privileged to attend a Cardassian tribunal trial. (DS9: "Tribunal")
Examples
List of spouses
-
- Chakotay and Seven of Nine (alternate timeline)
- Jhamel and Thy'lek Shran
- Keldar and Ishka
- Henry and Shannon Janeway
- Mark Johnson and his wife
- Harry Kim and Linnis Paris (alternate timeline)
- Kimball and her husband
- Leeta and Rom
- Robert and Marie Picard
- Keiko and Miles O'Brien
- Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres
- Tom Paris and Kes (alternate timeline)
- William T. Riker and Deanna Troi
- Benjamin Sisko and Kasidy Yates-Sisko
- T'Pel and Tuvok
- Samantha Wildman and Greskrendtregk
- Zek and Ishka
- Martok and Sirella
- Worf and Deanna Troi (alternate quantum reality)
- Leah Brahms and Geordi La Forge (alternate timeline)
- Leah Brahms and her husband
- Phlox and Feezal Phlox (and two other wives)
- Alexander Marcus and his wife
- Hikaru Sulu and Ben (alternate reality)
List of ex-spouses
-
- Grilka and Quark
- Jeyal and Lwaxana Troi
- Koss and T'Pol
- Prinadora and Rom
- Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher (alternate timeline)
- Katherine Pulaski and three spouses
- Leah Brahms and her husband (alternate timeline)
- Leonard McCoy and his ex-wife (alternate reality)
List of widows and widowers
-
- Manua Apgar, widow of Nel Apgar
- Chakotay, widower of Seven of Nine (alternate timeline)
- Kevin Uxbridge, widower of Rishon Uxbridge
- Worf, widower of Jadzia Dax
- Ishka, widow of Keldar
- Annorax, widower of his wife
- Edward M. La Forge, widower of Silva La Forge
- Beverly Crusher, widow of Jack Crusher
- Amelia Earhart, widow of her husband
- Flint, widower of "a hundred"
- James T. Kirk, widower of Miramanee
- Perrin, widow of Sarek
- Clare Raymond, widow of Donald Raymond
- Donald Raymond, widower of Clare Raymond
- Kyle Riker, widower of Betty Riker
- Sarek, widower of Amanda Grayson
- Benjamin Sisko, widower of Jennifer Sisko
- Lwaxana Troi, widow of Ian Andrew Troi
- Janet Wallace, widow of Theodore Wallace
- Rima Harewood, widow of Thomas Harewood (alternate reality)
- An unnamed person, widower of Marika Wilkarah