Aunt (Redirected from Great-aunt)

An aunt and her niece in Tigray, Ethiopia.
Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil (right) with her nephew Prince Pedro Augusto sitting on her lap and her sister Princess Leopoldina holding her son Prince Augusto Leopoldo, c. 1868

An aunt is a woman who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Aunts who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. Known alternate terms include auntie or aunty. Children in other cultures and families may refer to the cousins of their parents as aunt or uncle due to the age and generation gap. The word comes from Latin: amita via Old French ante and is a family relationship within an extended or immediate family.

The male counterpart of an aunt is an uncle, and the reciprocal relationship is that of a nephew or niece.

Aunts by generation

Additional terms

  • A half-aunt is a half-sister of a parent.
  • An aunt-in-law is the aunt of one's spouse and is the wife of the uncle of somebody.[citation needed].
  • A great-aunt/grandaunt (sometimes written grand-aunt) is the sister of one's grandparent. Despite the popular usage of great-aunt, genealogists consider it more correct to use grandaunt for a grandparent's sister to avoid confusion with earlier generations.[citation needed] Similarly, the female siblings of one's great-grandparents are referred to as great-grandaunts.[better source needed]

Genetics and consanguinity

Aunts by birth (sister of a parent) are related to their nieces and nephews by 25%. As half-aunts are related through half-sisters, they are related by 12.5% to their nieces and nephews. Non-consanguineous aunts (female spouse of a relative) are not genetically related to their nieces and nephews.

Cultural variations

In some cultures, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, respected senior members of the community, often also referred to as Elders, are addressed as "uncle" (for men) and "aunt" for women, as a mark of seniority and respect, whether related or not, such as Aunty Kathy Mills.

In several cultures, no single inclusive term describing both a person's kinship to their parental female sibling or parental female in-law exists. Instead, there are specific terms describing a person's kinship to their mother's female sibling, and a person's kinship to their father's female sibling, per the following table:[citation needed]

Terms for aunt
Language Mother's sister Father's sister
Albanian teze hallë
Kurdish Xaltîk (IPA: xɑːltiːk) Metik (IPA: mɛtɪk)
Arabic خالة (khaleh) عمّة (ammeh)
Hindi Mausi Bua
Korean 이모 (Imo) 고모 (Gomo)
Marathi Mavashi Aatya
Persian (خاله)khaleh (عمّه)ammeh
Polish ciotka (diminutive: ciocia) stryjna (diminutive: stryjenka)
Swedish moster faster
Turkish teyze hala

Aunts in popular culture

Aunts in popular culture have not always been portrayed as positive roles. Childless aunts are often subjected to othering in popular culture and presented as exotic or as having a second-best role, with motherhood preferred.

Fictional aunts include:

Aunt Flo is a popular euphemism referring to the menstrual cycle.

An agony aunt is a colloquial term for a female advice columnist.

See also


This page was last updated at 2022-12-06 17:23 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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