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nephew

noun

Simple meaning

A son of one's sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nehfyoo

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnɛfju

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. 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).

  2. A son of your brother or sister

  3. A son of one's cousin or cousin-in-law

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: 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).

Used this way, nephew is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use nephew

  • “My nephew loves to play with his toy cars and building blocks.”noun

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: son of one's sibling or brother-in-law

niece

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.