cousin Hear it!

cousin definition

cousin (kuzən)

noun

  1. Obsolete a collateral relative more distant than a brother or sister, descended from a common ancestor
  2. the son or daughter of one's uncle or aunt: also called first cousin, full cousin, or cousin-german: one's second cousin is a child of one's parent's first cousin; one's first cousin once removed is a child of one's first cousin (or, conversely, a first cousin of one's parent)
  3. loosely any relative by blood or marriage
  4. a person or thing thought of as somehow related to another our Mexican cousins
  5. a title of address used by one sovereign to another sovereign or to a nobleman

Etymology: ME cosin < OFr < L consobrinus, orig., child of a mother's sister, also cousin, relation < com-, with + sobrinus, cousin on the mother's side < base of soror, sister

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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