niece
Americannoun
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nieces
plural
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a daughter of a person's brother or sister.
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a daughter of a person's spouse's brother or sister.
noun
Usage
Spelling tips for niece The word niece is hard to spell because it can be hard to remember the order of the i and e. Sometimes people want to spell it neice, which is incorrect. How to spell niece: The easiest way to remember how to spell niece is with the classic mnemonic device: “I before E, except after C."
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of niece
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English nece, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin neptia (unrecorded), from Latin neptis “granddaughter”; replacing Middle English nifte, Old English nift; cognate with Old Frisian, Old High German nift, Dutch nicht, Old Norse nipt; akin to Lithuanian neptė̃, Sanskrit naptī; cf. nephew
Explanation
Your niece is your siblings's daughter. It's as simple as that. Your parents' brothers and sisters are your uncles and aunts. If you are female, you are their niece. If you are male, you are their nephew. Both niece and nephew come from the Latin word nepotem. One nice thing about the spelling of niece is that it adheres to the "i" before "e" except after "c" rule. Whew!
Vocabulary lists containing niece
It's All in the Family
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Unit 20, Lessons 1–2
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 4
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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:
Carmen Berni, an 86-year-old retired English teacher from Zaragoza,was driven to the top of the mountain by her niece.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Brian's niece, Jacqui Low, added: "It just seems incredible that they didn't see the marks on his face, the shot."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
She thought back to her mother, who took custody of her niece and nephew when her sister died at the age of 21 and the kids’ father was serving time in prison.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
If your niece’s mother lives there rent-free, the trustee should be comfortable that doing so benefits your niece and there should be no rules forbidding it.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
Sancho, the niece, and the housekeeper could not stop sobbing.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
Alicia Schifferle, Mikaela’s sister, knew she had to give the competition everything she had for her future nieces and nephews.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
One of my nieces recently messaged me about a sentence in a children’s book.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
There is no social contract requiring aunts and uncles to divide their estates equally among their nieces and nephews, but unequal inheritances can still pack an unintentional emotional punch.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
In the original film, Jet and Fran are the witchy, eccentric aunts who took in their nieces after their parents died.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
He saw his nieces and nephews for the very first time.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
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.
