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:
"I don't want to imitate him but I try to resemble him," she said of her uncle.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
Born in 1991, Peña was born years after the Smiths broke up, but was introduced to the group’s catalog at age 5, while his uncle drove him around in a lowrider.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
"It's really hard to explain to Americans that I'm from Swansea and I was brought up with Swansea City. My uncle Bobby was director of the Swans when John Toshack took us to the premiership."
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
His mother, uncle and grandmother are barely getting by.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
He was nobody’s uncle that anybody knew of, but folks respected him.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
She was raised in a huge extended family — she has 32 aunts and uncles — and remembers a house that was almost constantly full.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026
Zuhair, who is 25, says his uncles pushed him to marry a 16-year-old girl from his extended family after her father - her sole guardian - was killed in an Israeli air strike.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
It did not make sense to me that only children had aunts, uncles, and cousins.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
SAVANNAH, Ga.—Bill Howard’s family has earned a living from the piney woods of southeast Georgia since 1898, when his great-grandfather and seven great-great uncles started cutting lumber with a portable sawmill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
For my next report on Robert Frost, I will count the memories of my uncles.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
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.
