How to Use second cousin in a Sentence

second cousin

noun
  • Susan is my second cousin.
  • Think of it as the stylish second cousin to hot fudge or caramel sauce.
    — Kendra Vaculin, Bon Appetit Magazine, 3 Feb. 2026
  • Franks was Loeb’s second cousin who lived just across the street.
    — Marianne Mather, Chicago Tribune, 16 May 2024
  • Dawson Brown was his second cousin, and a year ahead in school.
    — Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 19 July 2021
  • Your high school friend who moved three states away or your second cousin will be in your audience.
    — Sam Mehrbod, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2021
  • Boy reads caption, which says that new boy in picture is girl’s second cousin from out of town.
    — Jen Kim, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2023
  • In fact, a second cousin is rumored to have eaten 30 one year.
    — Amy Schwabe, Journal Sentinel, 27 Mar. 2024
  • There’s not a word for second cousin once removed or even auntie, uncle.
    — Tomris Laffly, IndieWire, 20 June 2024
  • My much younger second cousin reached out by text and asked me to play for his upcoming wedding.
    — Amy Dickinson, Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 2022
  • That’s when the second cousin started to run away, fearing for his life, police said.
    — Jay R. Jordan, Houston Chronicle, 25 Nov. 2019
  • Hawke, who is a second cousin of Williams, rode the elegiac rhythms of the play’s gorgeous lament.
    — John Lahr, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2020
  • But two of his second cousins, one on his paternal side and one on his maternal side, had.
    — Heather Murphy, New York Times, 1 July 2019
  • Ninety percent of 23andMe users get at least one second cousin match.
    — Caitlin Harrington, Wired, 30 July 2020
  • Which means the newest royals will grow up very close in age, boding very well for a close second cousin friendship!
    — Emily Dixon, Marie Claire, 24 Feb. 2021
  • The host’s second cousin has a friend whose roommate I Insta-stalk.
    — Johnathan Appel lillian Stone, The New Yorker, 15 Nov. 2019
  • Polish the silver for everyone from dear ol’ dad to second cousin Sam!
    — Elise Taylor, Vogue, 23 Nov. 2021
  • The cause was congestive heart failure, said a second cousin, Tom Homan.
    — Washington Post, 3 Oct. 2019
  • The caller suspected her second cousin, who had a violent past, was behind the calls.
    — John Benson, cleveland, 7 Sep. 2022
  • The closest relative that the database found was a second cousin, Johnson said.
    — Helen Murphy, PEOPLE.com, 24 Oct. 2019
  • One second cousin works for Aflac now, but Amos is not expecting a relative to succeed him.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 6 Mar. 2026
  • The actor was a second cousin to the Princess of Wales through his great-great-grandparents, though the two never met.
    — Annie Goldsmith, Town & Country, 31 May 2022
  • Or maybe it’s delivered in the middle of the day, informing you that your childhood next-door neighbor’s second cousin died.
    — Libby Hill, latimes.com, 11 May 2018
  • Creativity is in her genes as a second cousin of Tennessee Williams.
    — Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Though a second cousin of Thomas Jefferson, Marshall was not rich, and his wife was sickly.
    — Kate Galbraith, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Mar. 2018
  • Some of her best buddies include her second cousins Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
    — Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, 26 June 2019
  • Hello also to their aunts, uncles and second cousins and the boyfriends of those cousins, to their mom’s friend Sheila from work and their dad’s friend Steve.
    — Charlotte Alter, Time, 22 May 2020
  • Boy squints at picture and realizes girl’s second cousin kind of looks like a younger Mark Ruffalo, which boy thinks is kind of cool.
    — Jen Kim, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2023
  • In the spring of 1845 Thoreau could have been the sad second cousin in a Jane Austen novel.
    — Michael S. Hopkins, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 May 2020
  • Interviewees include Lamar, who is Keem’s second cousin.
    — Hattie Lindert, Pitchfork, 10 Feb. 2026
  • She was picked up at the airport by the then-bishop of Kerry, Eamonn Casey, who was her second cousin once removed.
    — Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 29 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'second cousin.' 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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