Meaning & use
your great uncle
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
The brother of one of your grandparents, or the husband of a sibling of one of your grandparents.
Grammar: Countable; you can say 'a great uncle' or 'two great uncles'. Often written as two words, sometimes hyphenated 'great-uncle'.
Patterns
- my great uncle
- her great uncle John
My great uncle fought in the war and rarely spoke about it.
She inherited the farm from her great uncle, who had no children.
We visited my great uncle in the nursing home last weekend.
Word forms
| plural | great uncles |
|---|
Common combinations
- my great uncle on my mother's side
- My great uncle on my mother's side lives in Canada.
- a distant great uncle
- He is a distant great uncle I have never met.
- great uncle and great aunt
- My great uncle and great aunt celebrated their golden anniversary.
Synonyms and how they differ
- granduncle
- A more formal or technical term for the same relationship, common in genealogy.
Opposites
Word family
- great aunt noun
- The sister of one of your grandparents.
- great-nephew noun
- The grandson of your brother or sister.
- great-niece noun
- The granddaughter of your brother or sister.
Commonly confused: your great uncle or granduncle? your great uncle or great-granduncle?
your great uncle vs granduncle
Granduncle means the same as great uncle, but it is less common in everyday speech.
your great uncle vs great-granduncle
A great-granduncle is the brother of a great-grandparent, one generation further back.
Practice
What is your great uncle?
Choose one answer.
A great uncle is the brother of a grandparent, or the husband of a grandparent's sister. A brother of a parent is an uncle; the father of a grandparent is a great-grandfather.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “your great uncle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.