Although the villagers called her a spinster, she led a content and independent life filled with books and travel.

The village fair was dominated by a group of elderly spinsters who ran the quilting circle with surprising authority.

Her friends worried that her insistence on independence would lead her into a life defined by spinsterism.

After her divorce, she found a strange freedom in spinsterhood, spending afternoons in the library and evenings tending her garden.

The spinsterish certainty with which Mrs. Langley refused any hint of frivolity made her both feared and quietly admired in the neighborhood.

Scholars examined how economic changes shaped spinsterhoods across rural counties.

Her spinsterishness was more a shield than a sorrow, a carefully maintained solitude she used to observe the world.

Her spinsterlike habits of keeping meticulous envelopes and a calendar of every birthday made her seem more solitary than eccentric.

Her spinsterly manner and solitary routines became the subject of gossip among the neighbors.

After years of avoiding social expectations, she embraced spinsterdom and discovered an unexpected freedom.