uncle
Americannoun
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uncles
plural
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a brother of one's father or mother.
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an aunt's husband.
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a familiar title or term of address for any elderly man.
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Slang. a pawnbroker.
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(initial capital letter) Uncle Sam.
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a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter U.
idioms
noun
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a brother of one's father or mother
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the husband of one's aunt
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a term of address sometimes used by children for a male friend of their parents
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slang a pawnbroker
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of uncle
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French uncle, Old French oncle, from Latin avunculus “mother's brother,” equivalent to av(us) “mother's father” + -unculus suffix extracted from diminutives of n-stems ( see homunculus)
Explanation
Your uncle is your parent's brother, or the man who marries one of your parent's siblings. Your favorite uncle might teach you to play chess or take you to amusement parks. Usually, an uncle is a relative — the brother of your mother, for example, or your dad's step-brother. It's also common in many cultures to have honorary uncles who are close family friends. From your uncle's perspective, you are either his niece or nephew. Colloquially, when you say or cry uncle, you're admitting defeat: "I'll let go of your arm when you say uncle!"
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
His connection to the club is through his grandfather Harry, a former vice-chairman, and uncle Ray, a director.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Najib, the scion of a powerful political family whose father and uncle both served as prime ministers, has always denied the charges against him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Roebuck also said that Jeramy knew that his uncle carried a lot of cash from the sale of used vehicles he advertised near the highway in front of his house.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"These buildings are nothing but ticking time bombs," said Ahmed Al-Ajla, whose uncle and other relatives were killed in the collapse.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
I demonstrated to my uncle how I could read both Hebrew and Spanish so swiftly I didn’t need to take a breath between words.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
It did not make sense to me that only children had aunts, uncles, and cousins.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
There was no cellphone signal in Pancho’s orchard, so Óscar and one of his uncles drove there to look.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
We have rituals there—paying respects to aging aunts and uncles, attending the home church, visiting Steve’s mom and little sister in the cemetery, buying pie at the Amish store.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
If there’s an emergency and a minor’s legal parents are incapacitated or killed, most rules default to direct blood relationships — grandparents, aunts and uncles, and so forth down the line.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
“What the heck, George? Churchill’s always been enough for you before. You know, besides the fact that your grandparents and all your aunts and uncles and cousins and your best friend live here.”
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
