first cousin

American  

noun

• first cousins
  plural

1. cousin.

2. anything or anyone closely related to or resembling another.

   The film producer tried not to make the movie a first cousin to his last hit.

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first cousin Idioms  

1. A close relation or resemblance to someone or something, as in This new machine is a first cousin to the previous model. The figurative use of cousin, which literally means “the child of one's aunt or uncle,” dates from the 1300s.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• first cousins
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of first cousin

First recorded in 1965–70

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

first cousin

Nieuwenhuijsen’s fifth great-grandmother, Beata de la Sablonière, was the painter’s first cousin.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

The second carriage included the Duke of Gloucester, first cousin to Queen Elizabeth II, and his wife, the Duchess of Gloucester.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

If the distinguished Soviet literary scholar Olga Freidenberg is known at all in the West, it is for her 45-year correspondence with her beloved first cousin, the novelist and poet Boris Pasternak.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

After adjusting to the shock, Monahan embraced the news, using 23andMe to meet relatives she never knew she had, including a first cousin and four half-siblings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2025

Sourmelina Zizmo, nee Papadiamandopoulos, was my grandparents’ cousin and hence my first cousin twice removed.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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