Word.ws English Dictionary

uncles

uncles is the plural of uncle.

uncles is the third-person singular simple present indicative of uncle.

Meaning of uncle

Noun

uncle (plural uncles)

  1. The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent.
    • And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 14
  2. The male cousin of one’s parent.
  3. (endearing) Used as a fictive kinship title for a close male friend of one's parent or parents.
  4. (euphemistic) Used as a title for the male companion to one's (usually unmarried) parent.
  5. (figuratively) A source of advice, encouragement, or help.
  6. (UK, dated, informal) A pawnbroker.
    • December 1843, William Makepeace Thackeray, "Grant in Paris" (review), in Fraser's Magazine
      A chain hangs out of the pocket of his velvet waistcoat , by which we may conclude that he has a watch , though we have known many gents whose watches were at their uncle's (as the fashionable term for the...

See all 13 meanings of uncle

Phrases with uncles

Questions about uncles

What is uncles the plural of?
Uncles is the plural of uncle.

Words near uncles in the dictionary

  1. unclergyable
  2. unclerical
  3. unclerically
  4. unclerklike
  5. unclerkly
  6. uncles
  7. uncles-in-law
  8. uncleship
  9. uncleships
  10. unclever
  11. uncleverly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: uncles (page history and authors); uncle (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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