aunt

American  

[ant, ahnt] / ænt, ɑnt /

noun

1. the sister of one's father or mother.

2. the wife of one's uncle.

3. Chiefly New England and South Midland U.S.  (used as a term of respectful address to an older woman who is not related to the speaker.)

4. Slang.  an aging gay man.

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aunt British  

/ ɑːnt /

noun

1. a sister of one's father or mother

2. the wife of one's uncle

3. a term of address used by children for any woman, esp for a friend of the parents

4. an exclamation of surprise or amazement

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Pronunciation

The usual vowel of aunt in the United States is the of rant except in New England and eastern Virginia, where it is commonly the “New England broad a, ” a vowel similar to French and having a quality between the of hat and the of car. The vowel itself is also used. In New England and eastern Virginia or the -like sound occur in aunt in the speech of all social groups, even where a “broad a ” is not used in words like dance and laugh. Elsewhere, the “broader” a is chiefly an educated pronunciation, fostered by the schools with only partial success (“Your relative isn't an insect, is she?”), and is sometimes regarded as an affectation. Aunt with the vowel of paint is chiefly South Midland United States and is limited to folk speech. The pronunciation of aunt was brought to America before British English developed the in such words as aunt, dance, and laugh. In American English, is most common in the areas that maintained the closest cultural ties with England after the pronunciation developed there in these words.

Other Word Forms

• auntlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of aunt

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English aunte, from Anglo-French, equivalent to Old French ante, from Latin amita “father's sister,” old feminine past participle of amāre “to love,” i.e., “beloved”

Example Sentences

She was found guilty of influencing her aunt, Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to secure a plot of land for her family in the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, a claim she strongly denies.

From BBC

The trial involving Siddiq - who quit as a Treasury minister in January over controversy around her ties to her aunt - has been playing out in Dhaka since August.

From BBC

A Czech cousin visited and revealed that Stoppard was Jewish, and that all of his grandparents and three of his aunts had died in the Holocaust, according to Lee’s biography.

From The Wall Street Journal

Stoppard was not fully aware of his Jewish heritage until the 1990s, when a Czech relative told him all four of his grandparents and three aunts had been killed in Nazi concentration camps.

From Barron's

White Sales were things my aunts went to.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• cousin
• father
• folk
• mother
• niece
• sibling
• uncle