Pronunciation

/niːs/

Definitions

• Noun: A daughter of one’s brother or sister, or a daughter of one’s spouse’s brother or sister. It can also refer to any female descendant in the same generation who is related through blood or marriage but not directly descending from oneself.

Examples

• Noun: “I have two nieces; one is my older brother’s daughter, and the other is from my wife’s sister.”
  • “My niece inherited her mother’s artistic talents.”

Phrases

• “To be someone’s niece” indicates the familial relationship between a person and their aunt or uncle.
• “Auntie’s/uncle’s/nephew’s pride and joy” might colloquially refer to a much-loved niece.

Example Sentences

• Noun: “At the family gathering, I enjoyed playing games with my young nieces.”
• “The inheritance was left to both nephews and nieces equally.”

Synonyms

• Niecekin (informal)
• Nibling (gender-neutral term for nephew or niece)
• Female cousin (in some contexts where the relationship is not direct offspring of a sibling)

Note that ‘niece’ has no verb or adjectival forms, and it doesn’t function as other parts of speech such as adverb, preposition, conjunction, pronoun, numeral, or interjection. Its usage primarily revolves around describing a specific family relationship.