This work proposes an inverse odd Weibull (IOW) family of distributions for a lifetime distributions. Some mathematical properties of this family of distribution were derived. Survival, hazard, quantiles, reversed hazard, cumulative, odd functions, kurtosis, skewness, order statistics and entropies of this new family of distribution were examined. The parameters of the family of distributions were obtained by maximum likelihood. The behavior of the estimators were studied through simulation. The flexibility and importance of the distribution by means of real data set applications were emphasized.