Definition of Aunt
(noun) A sister or sister-in-law of an individual’s parent; a wife of an individual’s uncle.
Example of Aunt
- Selma and Patty are the aunts of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie on The Simpsons.
Aunt Pronunciation
Syllabification: aunt
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /Ant/
- British English – /AHnt/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ɑnt/
- British English – /ɑːnt/
Usage Notes
- Plural: aunts
- A greataunt (great-aunt) or grandaunt (grand-aunt) is the aunt of an individual’s parent.
- A maiden aunt is an unmarried aunt and an aunt-in-law is an aunt by marriage (affinity) instead of blood (consanguinity).
- A maternal aunt is mother’s sister and a paternal aunt is a father’s sister.
- An aunt’s sibling’s child is either a niece if male or a nephew if female.
- The male equivalent of an aunt is an uncle.
- Informally called: auntie (aunty)
- The term (adjective) materteral and (adjective) materine means relating to an aunt and an aunt exhibits (noun) aunthood.
Related Quotation
- “Families of orientation, procreation, and cohabitation provide us with some of the most important roles we will assume in life. The nuclear family roles (such as parent, child, husband, wife, and sibling) combine with extended family roles (such as grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, and in-law) to form the kinship system” (Strong, Devault, and Cohen 2011:19).
Related Video
Additional Information
- Family and Kinship Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “aunt” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
Reference
Strong, Bryan, Christine DeVault, and Theodore F. Cohen. 2011. The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society. 11th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Cite the Definition of Aunt
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “aunt.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved June 5, 2023 (https://sociologydictionary.org/aunt/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
aunt. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/aunt/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “aunt.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed June 5, 2023. https://sociologydictionary.org/aunt/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“aunt.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 5 Jun. 2023. <https://sociologydictionary.org/aunt/>.