A Husband’s Mother Is свекруха, a Wife’s Mother Is теща: Ukrainian Kinship Terms

In Japanese, both a husband’s mother and a wife’s mother can be called “giri no haha” (“mother-in-law”). In Ukrainian, a husband’s mother is свекру́ха, a wife’s mother is те́ща — two different words. The same goes for fathers: a husband’s father is све́кор, a wife’s father is тесть.

This article sets out, drawing on the definitions in the dictionary and etymological dictionary of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the terms for in-laws, for uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, and nieces, and for кум (kum) and кума́ (kuma), words with no exact Japanese equivalent. Confirmed as of September 2026.

The definitions follow the Academy’s 20-volume Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language (the online edition covers А through Р as of September 2026) and the earlier 11-volume dictionary (1970–1980). Stress marks follow the notation of the Ukrainian Language-Information Fund’s “Slovnyky Ukrainy Online.”

In-Laws: the Husband’s Side and the Wife’s Side

First, the terms for a spouse’s family. There is one set of terms for the husband’s family as seen from the wife, and a separate set for the wife’s family as seen from the husband.

The 11-volume dictionary gives both шу́рин and своя́к the definition “wife’s brother.” Своя́к additionally carries the meaning “husband of wife’s sister,” and in dialect can also mean “relative” in general. Even in the dictionary, words and relationships do not always match one to one.

Ятрі́вка describes the relationship between women who have married brothers. The 11-volume dictionary quotes, as an example of usage, a line from a play by the playwright Karpenko-Kary: “Aren’t we the wives of own brothers?”

Terms Seen From Both Families

Compared with the Japanese words for “a married-in wife” (yome) and “a married-in husband” (muko), the difference in scope becomes clear. Зять is used not only for “daughter’s husband” but also for “sister’s husband.” Неві́стка is not only the son’s wife as seen by his parents, but also a brother’s wife as seen by his siblings.

Сват and сва́ха have another, separate meaning. The first sense given in the 11-volume dictionary is a person asked by someone wishing to marry to go and propose the match to the other family — a person who arranges the wedding. Сва́ха likewise carries the sense of a woman well versed in wedding customs who manages them, or a woman who arranges matches.

On the origin of these words, the Academy’s Institute of Linguistics’ Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language explains that зять goes back to an Indo-European root related to “to bear” or “to know,” and that it originally referred not to an existing family member such as a brother or son, but to a man brought into the clan by marriage. The same dictionary also records dialect examples in which све́кор is used to mean “wife’s father.”

Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Nephews, and Nieces

Дя́дько makes no distinction between the paternal and maternal side, or between older and younger than one’s parent. Japanese distinguishes “hakuji” (uncle, elder than one’s parent) from “ojiji” (uncle, younger than one’s parent) using different kanji; in Ukrainian, both are simply дя́дько. Conversely, Japanese “itoko” (cousin) does not distinguish male and female, whereas Ukrainian attaches an adjective to the word for brother or sister, as in двою́рідний брат (male cousin) and двою́рідна сестра́ (female cousin). Трою́рідний works the same way, and the 11-volume dictionary also records combinations such as трою́рідна ті́тка (a woman who is a parent’s second cousin).

For nephews and nieces there are two sets of terms, племі́нник/племі́нниця and не́бі́ж/небо́га, and the 20-volume dictionary explains both pairs with the same meaning. In the past the distinctions were finer. The encyclopedia Ukrainska Mova. Entsyklopediia (2004) lists, as examples of kinship terms that have fallen out of use, synovets (a brother’s son), sestrynets (a sister’s son), and netii (nephew).

Also Used for People Who Are Not Relatives

Several of these words are also used for people who are not relatives. According to the 20-volume dictionary, дя́дько is used colloquially for any adult man in general, and also as a form of address to an older man. The 11-volume dictionary likewise gives ті́тка the colloquial sense of “adult woman in general.” Не́бі́ж and небо́га carry a sense of affectionate address toward someone younger.

The form of the word changes when used as a form of address. In the inflection tables of “Slovnyky Ukrainy Online,” дя́дько becomes дя́дьку, ті́тка becomes ті́тко, свекру́ха becomes свекру́хо, and кума́ becomes ку́мо. The mechanics of these address forms are covered in “Ukrainian Personal Names: Romanization, Patronymics, and Forms of Address.”

Кум and Кума: the Bond Formed Through a Child’s Baptism

Кум and кума́ are the terms for the bond formed through a child’s baptism. Laid out together, the definitions in the 20-volume dictionary read as follows.

• кум: a child’s godfather (хреще́ний ба́тько), as seen by the child’s parents or godmother. Also, a child’s father, as seen by the godfather and godmother
• кума́: a child’s godmother (хреще́на ма́ти), as seen by the child’s parents or godfather. Also, a child’s mother, as seen by the godfather and godmother
• куми́ (plural): кум and кума́ taken together, as a pair

In other words, кум and кума́ do not describe the relationship between a child and its godparents, but the relationship in which a child’s parents and godparents address each other. The child, seen from the godparents, is called хреще́ник (a boy) or хреще́ниця (a girl) (11-volume dictionary, vol. 11). Japanese terms such as “nazukeoya” (godparent, literally “naming parent”) describe the relationship as seen from the child; there is no single Japanese word for the relationship between the two sets of parents themselves.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU), published by the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, notes in its entry “Folk customs connected with birth” that a kum and kuma were invited to a child’s baptism.

On the word’s origin, the Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language traces кум back to Proto-Slavic kumъ, which it explains derives from a shortened form, kuma, of a word meaning “godmother” in Balkan Vulgar Latin (formed from a prefix meaning “together” and mater, “mother”). The same dictionary explains the dialect word кумство as “кумівство (the bond of кум), a spiritual kinship.”

Кум and кума́ are not confined to kinship terms. According to the 20-volume dictionary, кум is also used colloquially as a form of address to a friend, and in fairy tales and fables the wolf is called кум and the fox кума́. The folk tale in which a wolf and a hare are in a кум relationship is introduced in “Of 400 Tales, the Fox Appears in 55: the Animal Tales Compiled Into One Volume in 1916.”

When You Reach for a Dictionary

Kinship terms vary slightly from dictionary to dictionary, and from region to region. The definitions in this article are what the Academy’s dictionary presents as the standard language. There is also dedicated research on kinship terms: the linguist Andrii Buriachok published Nazvy Sporidnenosti i Sviiatstva v Ukrainskii Movi (Terms of Kinship and Affinity in the Ukrainian Language) in 1961 (according to the encyclopedia’s entry on him).

How a given person addresses another also depends on their family’s and region’s customs. A word’s meaning can be checked in a dictionary, but the surest way to know how people actually address one another is to ask them directly. How to look up dictionary headwords is covered in “Type лютого and Get ‘Lutheran’: How to Use a Ukrainian Dictionary.”