nephew
/ˈnɛf.ju/UK/ˈnɛv.ju/
nephew noun: a son of one's sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; either a son of one's brother (fraternal nephew) or a son of one's sister (sororal nephew).
Noun
nephew (plural nephews)
- A son of one's sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; either a son of one's brother (fraternal nephew) or a son of one's sister (sororal nephew).
- Synonyms:
- neve
- A son of one's cousin or cousin-in-law
- A son of one's child.
- Hir father many a time and oft would say my daughter deere,
Of Nephewes thou my debtour art, their Graundsires heart to chéere.1567, Ovid, “The First Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- grandson
- Hir father many a time and oft would say my daughter deere,
- Descendant
- On that day Adam shall see all his nephews together1647, John Trapp, Commentary on the Epistles and Revelation, page 147
Proper noun capitalized: Nephew
Nephew (plural Nephews)
- A surname.
nephew meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
nephew in Hindi
- fraternal or sororal nephew — see also fraternal nephew, sororal nephew
- भतीजा bhatījā, भांजा bhāñjā
nephew in Tamil
- ஒன்றுவிட்ட மகன், உடன் பிறந்தவரின் மகன், மருமகன்
nephew in Marathi
- fraternal or sororal nephew — see also fraternal nephew, sororal nephew
- भाचा bhācā
nephew in Urdu
- fraternal or sororal nephew — see also fraternal nephew, sororal nephew
- بَھتِیجا bhatījā, بھان٘جا bhāñjā
More languagesFewer languages
- nephew in Bengali
- ভাইপো bhaipō
- nephew in Telugu
- మేనల్లుడు mēnalluḍu
- nephew in Malayalam
- യാമേയൻ yāmēyaṉ, അനന്തരവൻ anantaravaṉ
- nephew in Kannada
- ದಾಯಾದಿ
- nephew in Tagalog
- pamangking lalaki
- nephew in Arabic
- اِبْنُ أَخٍ ibnu ʔaḵin, اِبْنُ أُخْتٍ ibnu ʔuḵtin
- nephew in Malay
- anak saudara, anak saudara lelaki, penakan
- nephew in Indonesian
- keponakan, kemenakan, misan
- nephew in Thai
- หลานชาย lǎan-chaai
- nephew in Vietnamese
- cháu trai
- nephew in Myanmar
- တူ tu
- Kashmiri
- باپتھٕر bāpthụr, بابتھٕر bābthụr, بؠنتھٕر byanthụr
Examples of nephew in a sentence
- The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism.
- He got a crash course in babysitting when his sister dropped off his nephew for the afternoon.
- My nephew came up for the summer with my brother and co-uncle George.
Synonyms of nephew
Forms of nephew
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nephews |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Nephews |
Origin of nephew
From Middle English nevew, neveu (“nephew, grandson”), from Old French neveu, from Latin nepos, nepōtem, from Proto-Italic *nepōts (“nephew, grandson”), whence also French neveu, Italian nipote. Displaced or absorbed the inherited English neve (“nephew, grandson, male cousin”), from Middle English neve, from Old English nefa, from Proto-West Germanic *nefō, from Proto-Germanic *nefô (“nephew, grandson”), whence Dutch neef, German Neffe. All ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *népōts (“grandchild, sister's son”). Cognate with Serbo-Croatian nećak, Irish nia, Persian نوه (nave). Doublet of neve. Spelt with -ph- by readaptation to Latin nepos since the 15th century, which later triggered the spelling pronunciation with /f/.
English surname, from the noun nephew.
Words formed from nephew
Phrases with nephew
Questions about nephew
- What does nephew mean?
- Nephew means a son of one's sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; either a son of one's brother (fraternal nephew) or a son of one's sister (sororal nephew).
- What is nephew in Hindi?
- Nephew in Hindi is भतीजा (bhatījā), भांजा (bhāñjā). See Nephew meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is nephew?
- Nephew can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce nephew?
- Nephew is pronounced /ˈnɛf.ju/.
- What is the plural of nephew?
- The plural of nephew is nephews.
Words near nephew in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nephew (page history and authors); Nephew (page history and authors); nephew (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); അനന്തരവൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); nephew (Kannada 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-nephew.ogg.
Cite this entry: “nephew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nephew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.