Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Aunt

Aunt

,
Noun.
[OF.
ante
, F.
tante
, L.
amita
father’s sister. Cf.
Amma
.]
1.
The sister of one's father or mother; – correlative to nephew or niece. Also applied to an uncle's wife.
☞ Aunt is sometimes applied as a title or term of endearment to a kind elderly woman not thus related.
2.
An old woman; and old gossip.
[Obs.]
Shak.
3.
A bawd, or a prostitute.
[Obs.]
Shak.
Aunt Sally
,
a puppet head placed on a pole and having a pipe in its mouth; also a game, which consists in trying to hit the pipe by throwing short bludgeons at it.

Webster 1828 Edition

Aunt

'AUNT

,
Noun.
[L. amita, contracted.]
The sister of one's father or mother, correlative to nephew or niece.

Definition 2024

aunt

aunt

English

Noun

aunt ‎(plural aunts)

  1. The sister or sister-in-law of one’s parent.
    • 2007, Nancy Eshelman, A Piece of My Mind: Columns from the Patriot-News, page 35:
      I mentioned another aunt, my late mother's sister, who's about the same age.
  2. An affectionate term for a woman of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.

Antonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Several languages distinguish between blood aunts (one’s parent’s sister) and in-law aunts (one’s parent’s sister-in-law), some distinguish between paternal and maternal aunts, and some distinguish between one’s parent’s older siblings and younger siblings.

See also

Anagrams

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 The Dialect Survey of US pronunciations

Etymology

From Middle English aunte, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman aunte, from Old French ante, from Latin amita ‎(“father's sister”). Displaced native Middle English modrie ‎(“aunt”) (from Old English mōdriġe ‎(“maternal aunt”); compare Old English faþu, faþe ‎(“paternal aunt”)).

Pronunciation

Similar Results