cousins
Syllables: cou·sinsUK/ˈkʌzn̩s//ˈkʌz(ə)ns/
cousins noun: the American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective). Also the plural of cousin.
Noun (1)
cousins pl (plural only)
- The American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective).
- [T]he grounded fieldmen, the trainers and the case officers who made their own murmured caucus always – they saw the question solely in operational terms. […] They saw the shotgun marriage with the Cousins as just another skilful bit of tradecraft in a long and delicate poker game.1977, John le Carré [pseudonym; David John Moore Cornwell], chapter I, in The Honourable Schoolboy, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 16
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Cousins
Cousins (plural Cousinses)
- A surname from Middle English.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Cousins
Cousins
- plural of Cousin
Noun (2) capitalized: Cousins
Cousins
- plural of Cousin
Noun (3) capitalized: Cousins
Cousins
- Alternative letter-case form of cousins (“the American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective)”).
Also used as
cousins is also the plural of cousin.
cousins is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of cousin.
cousins meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
cousins in Hindi
- चचेरे भाइयों
cousins in Marathi
- चुलत भावंडे, चुलत भावंडांना, चुलत भावांना
cousins in Urdu
- کزنز
cousins in Bengali
- চাচাত ভাইয়েরা
More languagesFewer languages
- cousins in Telugu
- దాయాదులు
- cousins in Malayalam
- കസിൻസ്, കസിൻസിന്
- cousins in Kannada
- ಸೋದರಸಂಬಂಧಿಗಳು
- cousins in Punjabi
- ਚਚੇਰੇ ਭਰਾਵਾਂ
- cousins in Gujarati
- પિતરાઈ ભાઈઓ, પિતરાઈઓ, પિતરાઈ ભાઇઓ
Forms of cousins
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Cousins |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Cousinses |
| alternative form | Couzen |
| alternative form | Couzens |
| alternative form | Cozen |
| alternative form | Cozens |
| alternative form | Cozin |
| alternative form | Cozins |
| alternative form | Cossin |
| alternative form | Cossins |
| alternative form | Cosin |
| alternative form | Cosins |
| alternative form | Cusin |
| alternative form | Cusins |
| alternative form | Cussin |
| alternative form | Cussins |
| alternative form | Cousin |
| alternative form | Cosyn |
| alternative form | Cosyns |
Origin of cousins
From cousin + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum, regular plurals of nouns, and the third-person singular indicative present tense forms of verbs). The plural noun noun 1 sense 1 (“American or British intelligence services”) was popularized in the works of the English author John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell; 1930–2020).
A Middle English surname from Norman terminology. From Anglo-Norman, from Old French cusin, cosin, cousin (“cousin”) (French cousin, cousine). Literally, “familial relative”.
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Phrases with cousins
- full cousins
- half cousins
- cross cousins
- false cousins
- fifth cousins
- first cousins
- sixth cousins
- third cousins
- cousins german
- double cousins
- fourth cousins
- second cousins
15 more phrasesFewer phrases
- ship's cousins
- country cousins
- kissing cousins
- maternal cousins
- parallel cousins
- paternal cousins
- half first cousins
- half-first cousins
- double first cousins
- forty-second cousins
- autistics and cousins
- first cousins once removed
- first cousins twice removed
- second cousins once removed
- first cousins thrice removed
Questions about cousins
- What does cousins mean?
- Cousins means the American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective).
- What is cousins in Hindi?
- Cousins in Hindi is चचेरे भाइयों. See Cousins meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cousins?
- Cousins can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cousins?
- Cousins is pronounced /ˈkʌzn̩s/ (UK).
Words near cousins in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cousins (page history and authors); Cousins (page history and authors); cousins (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cousins (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-cousins.wav.
Cite this entry: “cousins.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cousins. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.