Cousins

How to spell cousins

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cousins

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cousins mean?

1. nounChildren of one's aunt or uncle, or more loosely, relatives sharing a common ancestor.

Cousins in a sentence

• All of her cousins gathered for the reunion every summer.

• The two cousins grew up in neighbouring towns and stayed close.

Where does cousins come from?

Language of origin: French

Cousins is the plural of cousin, which English took from the Old French cosin during the 1200s. That French word traces back to the Latin consobrinus, a compound built from com, meaning 'together' or 'with', and sobrinus, meaning 'a sister's child'; it originally named the children of two sisters. Over time Latin loosened the term to cover a much wider net of relatives, and by the time it reached medieval English it could mean almost any kinsman beyond the immediate family. Kings and nobles even used 'cousin' as a polite form of address for fellow rulers. The spelling trap survives from that French route: the word sounds as if it should end in 'sons' or 'zons', yet it keeps the soft Old French 'sin' spelling, with the 's' doing the work of a 'z' sound.

How the word is built

• cousin (a relative descended from a shared grandparent)
• -s (plural)