Meaning of uncle in English

uncle

noun [ C ]

/ˈʌŋ.kəl/ us

/ˈʌŋ.kəl/

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the brother of someone's mother or father, or the husband of someone's aunt or uncle:

I have lots of uncles and aunts.

We invited my Uncle Steve over.

[ as form of address ] Did you bring me a present, Uncle Jack?

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

your relatives

relativeAll my relatives gather every year for a family reunion.
extended familyHe has a very large extended family.
relationShe is a distant relation of his, though I don't quite remember how.
kinHe remained true to his kin.
mother's/father's side (of the family)I have aunts and uncles on my mother's side of the family.

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Indian English

any male adult that you know who is older than you:

John Uncle

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We're going to visit my aunt and uncle on Sunday .
She inherited lots of money from her uncle.
We went back to Ireland for my uncle's burial.
I struck up an interesting conversation with your uncle.
Her uncle takes a personal interest in her progress.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Family: relations in general

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(Definition of uncle from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

uncle | American Dictionary

uncle

noun [ C ]

/ˈʌŋ·kəl/

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the brother of someone’s mother or father, or the husband of someone’s aunt:

My aunt and uncle moved to Arizona when they retired.

(Definition of uncle from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of uncle

uncle

Four uncles and three aunts had virtually no contact with nieces or nephews and rarely saw any of them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Marriage to the niece, or maternal uncle's daughter was permitted and was often considered the ideal marriage.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus disgruntled children could always turn to uncles.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Accumulators too had fathers and uncles, and had to tread carefully in their dealings with them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, the scientists' brothers were also classified for occupational status together with the scientists' paternal uncles and grandfathers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After 1915, he was invited to fill some of his uncle's engagements.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Until he was 21, he worked alongside his grandfather, father and uncles.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both fathers and maternal uncles received some payments when a young woman married.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Young bachelors worked for their uncles from circumcision until marriage, with time allotted for them to earn wealth for themselves.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, grandparents were turned to more immediately than aunts or uncles.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The remainder of the male caregivers included 68.7% biological fathers, 13.6% stepfathers, 2.7% adoptive fathers, 1.4% uncles, 1.4% grandfathers, and 2.0% other.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The approximate risk to other relatives were 6% for half-siblings, 2% for uncles and aunts, and 2% for first cousins.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One of my dad's uncles was dead because of it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The rest lived with more distant relatives such as uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces or cousins.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Gifts from uncles and grandparents were most common, but younger brothers, sisters, aunts and occasionally even cousins featured.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of uncle?

Translations of uncle

in Chinese (Traditional)

舅父, 伯父, 叔父…

Meaning of uncle in English

uncle | American Dictionary

Examples of uncle

Translations of uncle

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