1
2
: one associated with or related to another : counterpart
Rural children deserve as good an education as their city cousins get.—
Benjamin Fine
Benjamin Fine3
—used as a title by a sovereign in addressing a nobleman
4
: a member of a group regarded as ethnically or culturally related
our English cousins
Examples of cousin in a Sentence
Everyone came to the wedding, including a distant cousin no one had heard from in years.
The cricket is a cousin of the grasshopper.
hurricanes and their cousins, typhoons
Recent Examples on the Web
Bolden apparently took that advice to heart, preparing fake applications for himself, Carreira, his mother, Jacqueline Johnson, 78, and his cousin, Christian McKenzie, 46, according to the complaint.
—John Annese, New York Daily News, 12 Aug. 2024
Peggy will find another kindred spirit in Athena Trumbo (Ozark’s Jessica Frances Dukes), her mother’s beloved cousin, who will voice her support of Peggy’s writing career.
—Shania Russell, EW.com, 12 Aug. 2024
What were these hobbit-like species that were cousins to modern humans?
—Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 8 Aug. 2024
But in 1885, John Singer Sargent, who had been a student of Carolus-Duran in Paris with Louis’s cousin Bob and so came to know the couple, painted them in the dining room of their house in Bournemouth.
—Phyllis Rose, The Atlantic, 7 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for cousin 
John Annese, New York Daily News, 12 Aug. 2024
Peggy will find another kindred spirit in Athena Trumbo (Ozark’s Jessica Frances Dukes), her mother’s beloved cousin, who will voice her support of Peggy’s writing career.
—Shania Russell, EW.com, 12 Aug. 2024
What were these hobbit-like species that were cousins to modern humans?
—Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 8 Aug. 2024
But in 1885, John Singer Sargent, who had been a student of Carolus-Duran in Paris with Louis’s cousin Bob and so came to know the couple, painted them in the dining room of their house in Bournemouth.
—Phyllis Rose, The Atlantic, 7 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for cousin
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cousin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Cousin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cousin. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cousin
noun
cous·in
ˈkəz-ᵊn 
1
a
: a child of one's uncle or aunt
b
: a relative descended from a common ancestor
2
: a member of a group regarded as ethnically or culturally related
our English cousins
Biographical Definition
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