How to Use great-uncle in a Sentence

great-uncle

noun
  • Life on the line For most of the '60s, my great-aunt and great-uncle lived in Detroit.
    Jackie Charniga, USA TODAY, 26 Feb. 2025
  • In 1918, her great-uncle was killed in the trenches of World War I.
    Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025
  • My strong great-uncle, swinging from the rafters, lost weight.
    Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2023
  • The issue is that his great-uncle jilted my great-aunt at the altar in the 1970s.
    Jeanne Phillips, The Mercury News, 27 May 2024
  • His late grandad, Paul, and great-uncle, Martin, also both played in the top tier, for Crystal Palace in the 1970s.
    Andy Naylor, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
  • And, of course, his late grandfather Paul and his great-uncle Martin both played for Palace in the top flight.
    Andy Naylor, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Their grandfather, Louis Polidori, and great-uncle took over and ran the store for decades.
    Miguel Otárola, Denver Post, 15 Apr. 2025
  • The boys’ great-uncle, Charles Cooper Sr., said the event was beautiful.
    Nick Stoico, BostonGlobe.com, 22 July 2023
  • On the Wall of the Missing, her great-uncle’s name is now marked with a rosette, indicating that he has been found.
    Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 June 2024
  • Two of Cordero’s great-uncles were abducted in 1973 and never found.
    Pascale Bonnefoy, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Aug. 2023
  • But there’s also the one from the trial — when Till’s great-uncle is identifying the men who murdered his nephew.
    Lucy McKeon, New York Times, 3 June 2024
  • Voight grew up in Yonkers, the middle son of a golf pro and a stay-at-home mom whose great-uncle was an isolationist and a staunch Joseph McCarthy supporter.
    Stephen Rodrick, Variety, 23 July 2024
  • That year my great-uncle Bill sold me his old rifle, a .32 Special Winchester Model 94.
    Ben East, Outdoor Life, 28 Nov. 2024
  • Some, like Cohen’s great-uncle, had their number removed.
    Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Jan. 2024
  • Some 40 years ago his great-uncle built a tennis club there, on what was a clay-pigeon shooting range, and Alcaraz’s grandfather, Carlos, joined in the venture.
    Gaby Wood, Vogue, 22 Feb. 2023
  • Toward the end of the movie, Mahito stumbles on a possible vision of his own future, though the question of who this elder sage is — Natsuko’s great-uncle?
    Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 24 Nov. 2023
  • My niece knows her great-grandfather and great-uncle both graduated from there.
    Judith Martin, The Mercury News, 23 Sep. 2024
  • Bob Czarnecki, Lillian's great-uncle, applauded the efforts to find his great-niece.
    Abigail Adams, People.com, 5 Mar. 2025
  • Lyons is a third-generation family farmer, the heir to a farming dynasty that began when his great-uncle E. T. Mape came over from Ireland.
    Jake Bittle, WIRED, 6 Jan. 2024
  • When indifferent and haughty stylist Magno Stift falls ill ahead of the tributes’ big pre-games interview, a young Effie swoops in as makeshift stylist, bringing in clothes that belonged to her great-aunt and great-uncle.
    Jessica Wang, EW.com, 27 Mar. 2025
  • One of Maram’s great-uncles, Fayez, is pushing a wheelchair carrying Maram’s ninety-year-old great-grandmother.
    Mosab Abu Toha, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023
  • In Luling, Yeni, her parents, aunts, and grandmother settled into a cramped house with a tin roof that was down the street from her great-uncles, the first members of the family to discover the town’s decent jobs, in the oil fields.
    Stephania Taladrid, The New Yorker, 8 Jan. 2024
  • If your fiance’s great-uncle got wind of the fact that he was being falsely accused and that your great-aunt not only didn’t love him but was after him for financial gain, who can blame him for running?
    Jeanne Phillips, The Mercury News, 27 May 2024
  • My great-uncle, Dennis Lubin, designed the Ardell logo and branding, which the company still uses today.
    Linne Halpern, ELLE, 21 June 2023
  • Dominik has followed his father and great-uncle into professional wrestling with WWE.
    Adam England, Peoplemag, 19 May 2024
  • After the war, Curt Engelhorn, Marlene’s great-uncle, took over the company, which was then a medium-sized family business, and turned it into a global empire.
    Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Elian survived, only to find himself in the eye of a geopolitical storm (and globe-spanning media frenzy) as his great-uncle in Miami fought to keep him in the United States and his father sought his return to Cuba.
    Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, 9 Oct. 2024
  • According to the listing, Nightingale’s wealthy father, William Nightingale (née Shore), inherited the historic property from his great-uncle in 1815.
    Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 12 June 2024
  • Her great-uncle leads the family in ardas, a Sikh prayer, every year to express gratitude at everyone being together.
    Sakshi Venkatraman, NBC News, 22 Nov. 2023
  • When his great-uncle dies, Norman inherits the responsibility of enacting an annual ritual to protect the town from a 300 year old witch's curse.
    Danny Horn, EW.com, 6 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'great-uncle.' 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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