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 Widow Gang, Colombian serial killer group
  • Black Widows of Liverpool, two women hanged for murder in 1884
  • Bodenfelde Black Widows, German serial killer duo
  • Black Widow Murders, murders committed in 1999 / 2005 by two elderly women in Los Angeles
  • 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
  • Áurea Vázquez-Rijos, Puerto Rican woman convicted of hiring a hitman to murder her ex-husband Adam Anhang
  • 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; , 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 to 2010; is currently in El Pedregal Prison
  • Elfriede Blauensteiner (1931–2003), Austrian serial killer
  • Martha Needle (1863–1894), Australian serial killer
  • Nannie Doss (1905–1965), American serial killer
  • Christine Malèvre (born 1970), French serial killer
  • Margit Filó (1914–1979), Hungarian serial killer
  • Heloísa Gonçalves Duque Soares Ribeiro (born 1950), Brazilian-American murderer and suspected serial killer currently on the run
  • Mary Ann Cotton (1832–1873), English murderer and suspected serial killer
  • Dena Thompson (born 1960), British murderer
  • Margarita Sánchez Gutiérrez (1953), Spanish serial killer
  • Marie Alexandrine Becker (1879–1942), Belgian serial killer

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:
  • Black Widow (Claire Voyant)
  • Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)
  • Yelena Belova
  • In the , the Red Room (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is a program having trained several distinct Black Widows (Marvel Cinematic Universe):
  • Natasha Romanoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
  • Yelena Belova (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
  • Melina Vostokoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
  • Ruth Bat-Seraph (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

See also

  • Black Widower (disambiguation)