nibling
Syllables: nib·ling/ˈnɪblɪŋ/
nibling noun: used especially as a gender-neutral term: the child of one's sibling or sibling-in-law; one's nephew or niece.
Noun
nibling (plural niblings)
- Used especially as a gender-neutral term: the child of one's sibling or sibling-in-law; one's nephew or niece.
- Aunts and uncles are concerned with the education of their niblings and may play a minor role in the ultimate arrangement of a marriage for the nibling.1967, Ben J. Wallace, Gaddang Agriculture: The Focus of Ecological and Cultural Change (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin, →OCLC
- Very recently I heard an informant respond with cousin to my question about the “child of nibling” position.1971, Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society, volume 3, Urbana, Ill.: Steward Anthropological Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 144
nibling meaning in Bengali, Tagalog and Malay
nibling in Bengali
- ভাইপো
nibling in Tagalog
- gender-neutral term for child of one's sibling or sibling-in-law
- pamangkin
nibling in Malay
- gender-neutral term for child of one's sibling or sibling-in-law
- penakan, ponakan
Examples of nibling in a sentence
- In the following line we find Q¹P²; that is, child of a parent of a parent; this is the relation that nuncles (aunts or uncles) bear to niblings (nieces or nephews).1974, Roger W. Shuy, Charles-James N. Bailey, editors, Towards Tomorrow’s Linguistics, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press...
- She [Viola Edmundson Garfield] was close to her family, particularly her younger “siblings and niblings.”1988, Jay Miller, “Viola Edmundson Garfield”, in Ute Gacs, Aisha Khan, Jerrie McIntyre, Ruth Weinberg, editors, Women Anthropologists...
- Kin selection was strongest for choices between sibling and friend, decreasing across sibling vs. nibling, nibling vs. friend, and nibling vs. cousin, [...]1998 May, Daniel J. Kruger, “Male Relatives Benefit More from Kin Selecting Tendencies Enhancing Social Status”, in Daniel J. Kruger, PhD...
- Most distinctive of the system, therefore, were the two terms for parental siblings and for niblings, which occurred only among the Salish and neighboring Southern Nootkans.1999, Jay Miller, “Body”, in Lushootseed Culture and the Shamanic Odyssey: An Anchored Radiance, Lincoln, Neb.; London: University of...
Synonyms of nibling
Forms of nibling
| plural | niblings |
|---|
Origin of nibling
Blend of nephew or niece + sibling, coined by the American linguist Samuel Elmo Martin (1924–2009) in 1951.
Words that rhyme with nibling
Questions about nibling
- What does nibling mean?
- Nibling means used especially as a gender-neutral term: the child of one's sibling or sibling-in-law; one's nephew or niece.
- What is nibling in Bengali?
- Nibling in Bengali is ভাইপো. See Nibling meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use nibling in a sentence?
- In the following line we find Q¹P²; that is, child of a parent of a parent; this is the relation that nuncles (aunts or uncles) bear to niblings (nieces or nephews).
- What part of speech is nibling?
- Nibling is a noun.
- How do you pronounce nibling?
- Nibling is pronounced /ˈnɪblɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of nibling?
- The plural of nibling is niblings.
Words near nibling in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nibling (page history and authors); nibling (Bengali 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nibling.wav, En-us-nibling.mp3.
Cite this entry: “nibling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nibling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.