uncle

American  

[uhng-kuhl] / ˈʌŋ kəl /

noun

• uncles
  plural

1. a brother of one's father or mother.

2. an aunt's husband.

3. a familiar title or term of address for any elderly man.

4. Slang. a pawnbroker.

5. (initial capital letter) Uncle Sam.

6. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter U.

---

idioms

1. say / cry uncle, to concede defeat.

   They ganged up on him in the schoolyard and made him say uncle.

uncle British  

/ ˈʌŋkəl /

noun

1. a brother of one's father or mother

2. the husband of one's aunt

3. a term of address sometimes used by children for a male friend of their parents

4. slang a pawnbroker

---

uncle More Idioms  

1. see cry uncle; Dutch uncle.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• uncleship
  noun
• uncleless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• uncles
  plural

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

See Examples For:

uncle uncles

His connection to the club is through his grandfather Harry, a former vice-chairman, and uncle Ray, a director.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 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

"Before his death, my uncle... had endured displacement, poverty, imprisonment and loss," Ajila told AFP, decrying the lingering danger from "houses on the verge of collapse".

From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026

In 2022, Charles Stilwell began chatting with a user on Facebook Messenger who went by the name Amity Zhang and told him about a supposed crypto investment pool run by her uncle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

Like a playful uncle, he was always ready to tease.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

“You don’t have mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and uncles ... we needed help,” said Rudy, who moved to L.A. from New York.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 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

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

This was when the Persian Empire was so big that uncles and princes each got their own countries to play with.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri

Related Words

• aunt
• cousin
• father
• folk
• mother
• niece
• sibling