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Aunt vs Gaunt - What's the difference?

aunt | gaunt |

As a noun aunt

is a sister or sister-in-law of someone’s parent.

As an adjective gaunt is

lean, angular, and bony.

aunt

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A sister or sister-in-law of someone’s parent.
  • * 2007 , Nancy Eshelman, A Piece of My Mind: Columns from the Patriot-News , page 35:
    • I mentioned another aunt , my late mother's sister, who's about the same age.
  • (also'' great-aunt ''or grandaunt) A person's grandparent's sister or sister-in-law.
  • (usually auntie) A grandmother.
  • An affectionate term for a woman of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.

    • Antonyms

    * (with regard to gender) uncle * (with regard to ancestry) niece, nephew

    Hyponyms

    * (qualifier, sister of someone's father) paternal aunt * (qualifier, sister of someone's mother) maternal aunt

    Derived terms

    * Auntie * auntie, aunty * agony aunt * big auntie * great-aunt * grandaunt * little auntie * mine aunt * naunt

    See also

    * (l)

    Anagrams

    * (l)

    References

    1000 English basic words

    gaunt

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) * (l) (Scotland)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • lean, angular and bony
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1894 , author=Joseph Jacobs , title=The Fables of Aesop , chapter=1 citation , passage=A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by.}}
  • haggard, drawn and emaciated
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1917 , author=Arthur Conan Doyle , title=His Last Bow , chapter=5 citation , passage=In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt , wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.}}
  • bleak, barren and desolate
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1908 , author=William Hope Hodgson , title=The House on the Borderland , chapter=14 citation , passage=Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt , black cliffs. }}

    Synonyms

    * scraggy, scrawny, skinny