Black widow
Look up black widow or black widows in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Black widow may refer to:
Spiders
- Black widow spider, a common name for some species of spiders in the genus Latrodectus
 
American species
- Latrodectus apicalis, the Galapagos black widow
 - Latrodectus curacaviensis, the South American black widow
 - Latrodectus hesperus, the western black widow
 - Latrodectus mactans, the southern black widow
 - Latrodectus variolus, the northern black widow
 
Eurasian species
- Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, the Mediterranean black widow or European black widow
 
Oceanian species
- Latrodectus hasseltii, the redback spider or Australian black widow
 
People
Murderers
- Black Widows of Liverpool, two women hanged for murder in 1884
 - Belle Gunness, 25–40 victims spanning from 1884 to 1908
 - Vera Renczi (1903–1960), murdered 35 men, including her husband and her son
 - Betty Neumar (1931–2011), dubbed "Black Widow" or "Black Widow Granny", accused of murdering one of her husbands
 - Blanche Taylor Moore (born 1933), convicted murderer
 - Griselda Blanco (1943–2012), Colombian drug trafficker, known for ordering or committing the murders of three ex-husbands
 - Catherine Nevin (1950–2018), responsible for the 1996 murder of her husband in the pub they owned
 - Stacey Castor (1967–2016), convicted murderer
 - Lynn Turner (murderer) (1968–2010), convicted murderer
 - Black Widow Murders, murders committed in 1999 / 2005 by two elderly women in Los Angeles
 - Áurea Vázquez-Rijos, Puerto Rican women who hired a hitman to murder her ex-husband Adam Anhang in 2005 and was convicted in 2018
 - Melissa Ann Shepard (born 1935), Canadian murderer
 - Patrizia Reggiani (born 1948), ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, convicted of arranging his murder
 - Chisako Kakehi (born 1946), Japanese serial killer; as of August 2023, awaiting execution for three murders
 - Lyda Southard (1892–1958), American serial killer of husbands and other family members using arsenic from flypaper
 - Esneda Ruiz Cataño (born 1968), Colombian serial killer of husbands for life insurance benefits from 2001-2010; is currently in El Pedregal Prison
 
Athletes
- Jeanette Lee (pool player) (born 1971), so-called because of her fondness for wearing black
 - Sonya Thomas (born 1967), top-ranked competitive eater
 
Other
- Florentine Rost van Tonningen (1914–2007), Dutch neo-Nazi nicknamed Zwarte weduwe (Black Widow)
 
Arts and entertainment
Fictional characters
- Black Widow (Marvel Comics), the name of several distinct characters:
 - In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Red Room (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is a program having trained several distinct Black Widows (Marvel Cinematic Universe):
 - The Black Widow, a Batman villain played by Tallulah Bankhead
 - Black Widow, a character from the Saturday Night Slam Masters series of games by Capcom
 - Natasha Kerensky, in Tales of the Black Widow Company, a supplement for the BattleTech video game
 
Film and television
- The Black Widow (serial), a 1947 movie serial starring Bruce Edwards
 - Black Widow (1951 film), a British film starring Christine Norden
 - Black Widow (1954 film), starring Ginger Rogers and Gene Tierney
 - Black Widow (1987 film), featuring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell
 - Black Widow (2003 film), a film directed by Brad Turner
 - The Black Widow (2005 film), DVD release title of film by Giada Colagrande, produced as Before It Had a Name
 - Black Widow (2005 film), a Canadian film starring Sarah Slean
 - Black Widow (2007 film), with Elizabeth Berkley and Alicia Coppola
 - Black Widow (2010 film), starring Jack Scalia and Jennifer O'Dell
 - Black Widow (2021 film), a film starring Scarlett Johansson based on the Marvel Comics character
 - A Widow's Game, a 2025 Spanish film originally titled, La viuda negra, "The Black Widow".
 - Black Widow: A Land Bleeds, a 2017 Indian film
 - Black Widows (2016 TV series), Scandinavian TV serial
 - Black Widows (Indian TV series), a 2020 web series
 - "The Black Widow", an episode of Boston Legal
 - "Black Widow" (Marvel Studios: Legends), an episode of Marvel Studios: Legends
 
Literature
- the Black Widow, a car driven by the Spider (DC Comics)
 - The Black Widow (Silva novel), 2016 novel by Daniel Silva
 - Black Widow: A Novel, a 1981 novel by Christina Crawford
 
Gaming
- Black Widow (video game), a 1982 Atari arcade game
 - Black Widow Games, a computer games developer
 
Music
- Black Widow (opera), by Thomas Pasatieri
 - Black Widow (band), a British rock band
 - Black Widow (Black Widow album), 1971
 - Black Widow (Lalo Schifrin album), 1976
 - Black Widow (In This Moment album), 2014
 - The Black Widow (album)
 - Black Widow Records, an Italian label
 
Songs
- "Black Widow" (Iggy Azalea song), 2014
 - "Black Widow" (Pristin song), 2017
 - "Black Widow", by Black Tide on the album Light from Above
 - "Black Widow", by Mötley Crüe on the compilation Red, White & Crüe
 - "Black Widow", by Children of Bodom on the album Hatebreeder
 - "Black Widow", by U.D.O. on the album Animal House
 - "Black Widow", by Dolores O'Riordan on the album Are You Listening?
 - "Black Widow", by Donovan Leitch on the album Slow Down World
 - "Black Widow", by In This Moment on the album Black Widow
 - "Black Widow", by Lita Ford on the album Dangerous Curves
 - "Black Widow", by Michelle Shocked on the album Short Sharp Shocked
 - "Black Widow", by Alice Cooper on the album Welcome to My Nightmare
 - "Black Widow", by Jefferson Starship on the album Winds of Change
 - "Black Widow", by Booty Luv
 - "Black Widow", by Link Wray and His Ray Men, B-side to "Jack the Ripper"
 - "Black Widow", by Cage the Elephant on the album Melophobia
 - "Black Widow", by Susanne Sundfør on the album The Brothel
 - "Black Widow Pt. 2", by RZA featuring ODB on the album Digital Bullet
 - "Black Widows", by Grave Digger on the album The Last Supper
 
Rides
- Black Widow (ride), an amusement ride at Kennywood
 - Black Widow, a roller coaster at Six Flags New England
 
Military
- Northrop P-61 Black Widow, a World War II night fighter
 - Black Widow II, a Northrop YF-23 prototype fighter aircraft, nicknamed after the P-61
 - PMN mine, nicknamed Black Widow because of their dark casing
 - Soviet submarine B-39, nicknamed Black Widow after having been sold off as a museum ship
 - 421st Fighter Squadron, nicknamed Black Widows
 
Other plants and animals
- Black tetra, also known as "black widow tetra", a freshwater fish
 - Stygnobrotula latebricola, an ocean fish
 - Geranium phaeum, a herbaceous plant species
 
Other uses
- The Black Widow Pulsar
 - Black Widow (paint mix), paint mix for projection screen
 - Black Widow (Chechnya), term for female suicide bombers from Chechnya or Dagestan
 - DHD(J), also called Black Widow, a subgroup of the militant Dimasa organization Dima Halam Daogah of Assam, India