Meanings
plural dead wife montages
- literallyslangbroadcastingA montage that shows a male protagonist's female partner, in a lost idealized, intimate state, sometimes in an idyllic setting.
- attributivebroadlyhumorousslanglifestyleAn image or scene evocative of the above, generally with regard to the photogenicity of the subject, or the intimacy between the subject and perspective character.
they gave geto that dead wife montage im cryingg
2023 September 21, @suguruhrs, Twitter2 more examples
i am so warm and affectionate and playful that i cannot help but exude dead wife montage energy. sorry if this is distressing
2024 December 11, @latkedelrey, Twitterif you combine all the Viktor scenes in arcane you will essentially get a dead wife montage
2025 September 18, @ivvv_a, Twitter
Origin
From a trope in film and television in which the deceased female partner of a grieving male protagonist appears in flashback or diegetic home movie, in happier circumstances than the protagonist now appears.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
dead wife montage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20wife%20montage
“dead wife montage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20wife%20montage. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dead wife montage,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead%20wife%20montage.
Source: dead wife montage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.