as in relative
a person connected with another by blood or marriage we both were surprised to learn that we are distant cousins

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of cousin In the new experiment, scientists observed that baryons made of an up quark, a down quark and one of their more exotic cousins called a beauty quark decay more often than baryons made of the antimatter versions of those same three quarks. Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, 16 July 2025 This included an unearthed letter written by a teenage Erik to his late cousin, penned before the murders and which discussed Jose Menendez’s ongoing abuse. Kevin Dolak, HollywoodReporter, 15 July 2025 The following day, McGrath’s cousin, 15-year-old Mason Murren, was seriously injured in an electric bike crash in Trumbull and later died, according to the Trumbull Police Department. Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 15 July 2025 Around that time, though, his cousin Will Childers, who was also at Georgia and is now a pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers’ farm system, needed a second Tommy John surgery. Will Sammon, New York Times, 8 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for cousin
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cousin
Noun
  • Avoid sun exposure: Avoid direct sun exposure, protect yourself and check on vulnerable relatives and neighbors.
    Bay Area Weather Report, Mercury News, 11 July 2025
  • Look out for others: Stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.
    CA Weather Bot, Sacbee.com, 11 July 2025
Noun
  • The ceasefire has held but any sense of normalcy has not returned to the relations between the two countries.
    Sam Dalrymple, Time, 14 July 2025
  • The spat threatened to shatter relations between them and centered in part on a news story that described divisions between the FBI and the Justice Department.
    arkansasonline.com, arkansasonline.com, 13 July 2025
Noun
  • The road for becoming a historian started with researching his family’s history, specifically his father’s side.
    Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 July 2025
  • Beauchemin was since taken down his Facebook page and cut off contact with his family, at least temporarily, an insider told TMZ.
    Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News, 12 July 2025
Noun
  • Police are still working on notifying the first worker’s next-of-kin, so the person has not been identified yet.
    Helena Wegner July 8, Sacbee.com, 8 July 2025
  • Colossal plans to use similar techniques to bring back the Ice Age woolly mammoth in 2028, editing living cell nuclei from Asian elephants—the mammoth’s closest living kin—to express mammoth traits preserved in nearly 60 sets of Ice Age remains.
    Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 7 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Our family grew—from the three siblings left in the wake of our mother’s death—to a bustling bunch of kinsmen redeemers.
    James T. Farmer, Southern Living, 8 July 2025
  • Rediscovering his family’s ancestral land centuries after the religious wars forced those kinsmen to flee, our caballero soon steps in to protect a local clan from an oppressive landowner and his abusive henchmen.
    Ben Croll, Variety, 20 Sep. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Cousin.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cousin. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025.

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