Word.ws English Dictionary

avuncular

UK/əˈvʌŋkjʊlə//əˈvʌŋkjʊlɚ/

avuncular adjective: in the manner of an uncle, pertaining to an uncle.

Adjective

avuncular (comparative more avuncular, superlative most avuncular)

  1. In the manner of an uncle, pertaining to an uncle.
    • Both uncle Frank and uncle Stephen Austen had made it a point of principle to be rigorously unsentimental in the discharge of their avuncular obligations.1997, David Nokes, Jane Austen: A Life
    • In 2021, the Times described you as an “avuncular public intellectual.” How do you feel about that label?
    • [Stephen Fry:] Oh my lordy lord. Avuncular gives me great pleasure.2025 June 19, Scott Heller, quoting Stephen Fry, “Stephen Fry Knows He’s Become a Middle-Aged Cliché”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. (broadly) Kind, genial, benevolent, or tolerant.
    • But Jackson had an avuncular feeling for the two younger men and he assumed it was his duty to pull them from their gloom.1970, Wally Ferris, Across 110th, page 86
    • A man with such a nice, avuncular personality would not blow up the world.1987 January, William Schneider, “The New Shape of American Politics”, in The Atlantic

avuncular meaning in Urdu

avuncular in Urdu

چچا زاد, ماموں زاد

Examples of avuncular in a sentence

  • Telle is more the portrait of avuncular Norwegian affability than a would-be climate warrior.2026 May 15, Mark Sappenfield, “Even Norway is facing an energy crunch. It is hunting for solutions.”, in The Christian Science Monitor...
  • Thornton's reputation was that of a soft-hearted and avuncular veterinarian known for getting teary-eyed while listening to even slightly sentimental stories.2003 September 20, Vicki Croke, “New leader of the MSPCA moves to tame budget woes”, in Boston Globe:

Synonyms of avuncular

11 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of avuncular

Forms of avuncular

comparativemore avuncular
superlativemost avuncular

Origin of avuncular

From Medieval Latin avunculāris, from Classical Latin avunculus (“maternal uncle”) + -āris (“-ar”).

Words formed from avuncular

Questions about avuncular

What does avuncular mean?
Avuncular means in the manner of an uncle, pertaining to an uncle.
What is avuncular in Urdu?
Avuncular in Urdu is چچا زاد, ماموں زاد. See Avuncular meaning in Urdu.
How do you use avuncular in a sentence?
Telle is more the portrait of avuncular Norwegian affability than a would-be climate warrior.
What part of speech is avuncular?
Avuncular is an adjective.
How do you pronounce avuncular?
Avuncular is pronounced /əˈvʌŋkjʊlə/ (UK).

Words near avuncular in the dictionary

  1. avulsions
  2. avulsive
  3. avulsive cutoff
  4. avulsive cutoffs
  5. avuncuclan
  6. avuncular
  7. avuncularism
  8. avuncularities
  9. avuncularity
  10. avuncularly
  11. avunculate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: avuncular (page history and authors); avuncular (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-avuncular.ogg.

Cite this entry: “avuncular.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/avuncular. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.