Nephew

How to spell nephew

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce nephew

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nephew mean?

1. nounA son of one's brother or sister, or of one's brother-in-law or sister-in-law.

Nephew in a sentence

• My nephew visited at the weekend.

• I'm taking my nephew to the cinema.

Where does nephew come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin nepos, which originally meant 'grandson' or more broadly a male descendant, and only later narrowed to mean specifically the son of one's brother or sister. Latin nepos passed into Old French as neveu, and English borrowed that form in the 1200s, gradually respelling it as 'nephew'. The same ancient root survives in 'nepotism', the practice of favouring relatives, which literally referred to popes and cardinals advancing their 'nephews'. The unusual spelling, with 'ph' sounding like an 'f', reflects an old learned habit of writing the word with a Latin-flavoured 'ph' even though the everyday pronunciation kept a plain 'f' sound; in some British speech the 'ph' was even voiced as a 'v'. That mismatch between the written 'ph' and the spoken 'f' is exactly the trap that makes people reach for 'newphew' or 'nefew'.

How the word is built

• neph- (from Latin nepos: grandson, descendant)
• -ew (Anglicised ending via French neveu)