Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A brother of one's grandparent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The brother of a grandfather or grandmother. In Great Britain generally granduancle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun an uncle of one's father or mother.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The brother or brother-in-law of one’s grandparent; the uncle of one's parent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an uncle of your father or mother

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Was my great-uncle Brendan related to St. Brendan, the intrepid Irish monk who may have sailed to Newfoundland in the eighth century?

    Tracing My Roots and Coming Up With Dirt Joe Queenan 2011

  • Her great-uncle had wanted to marry a girl from Elmville way back when, and she ran away and was never seen again.

    So Much Pretty Cara Hoffman 2011

  • The oldest sister, Sarah, got greatly involved in tinsel painting and resurrected the stencils of their great-uncle, Bill Crowell.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • My great-uncle Rudolf, his wife Magarete and their children Klara and Klaus-Martin, were some of the others.

    Jeff Kelly Lowenstein: Kristallnacht Anniversary Has Special Meaning This Year Jeff Kelly Lowenstein 2011

  • When childhood tales of that great-uncle never returning from post-war Soviet imprisonment pulsed again in his mind as they had done, faintly though steadily, since he'd arrived in the city, Connie laid down his knife and fork and brought a hand up to his chin, hoping his arm would be enough to obstruct the Goethe-Institut emblem across his chest.

    A Bear Hunt in Riga Josef K. Strosche 2011

  • Joanna died in a violent robbery when I was three, and I continued to live with my great-aunt and great-uncle for two more years, before I was adopted by Kathryn, the only person I think of as “Mom.”

    Dark Secrets 2: No Time to Die the Deep End of Fear Elizabeth Chandler 2011

  • Obama's great-uncle was part of an Army division that liberated the Ohrdruf forced labor camp, a subdivision of Buchenwald.

    Obama discusses Middle East peace process with Elie Wiesel 2010

  • Reminds me of a funny comment a great-uncle shared, that as a boy he came home from school and proudly announced, "I'm the smartest one in the dumb row!"

    In Eugene, Palin says she eats granola too 2010

  • Joanna died in a violent robbery when I was three, and I continued to live with my great-aunt and great-uncle for two more years, before I was adopted by Kathryn, the only person I think of as “Mom.”

    Dark Secrets 2: No Time to Die the Deep End of Fear Elizabeth Chandler 2011

  • Riga gave them this, especially Connie, who knew it not as the Latvian capital but rather as the infamous postmark from which the final letter from a long-lost great-uncle was mailed in 1944.

    A Bear Hunt in Riga Josef K. Strosche 2011

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