Phrase guide

I'll be a monkey's uncle

phrase · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈaɪl biː ə ˈmʌŋkiz ˌʌŋkəl/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ɑːl-/
  • General-American: /ˈɑːl bi ə ˈmʌŋkiz ˌʌŋkəl/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

phrase

Meaning 1

Often preceded by well: expressing complete surprise or disbelief.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

Examples

  • Well I’ll be a monkey's uncle! I would never have thought that tourists would go into space!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Uncertain; the term monkey’s uncle appears in 19th-century works and may allude to early ideas about what is now called the theory of evolution. The term may then have gained more currency after the widely publicized 1925 Scopes Trial in Tennessee, United States, in which a high-school teacher was found guilty of having violated a law prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in a state-funded school.

Across languages

Translations

2 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: olen äimän käkenä — expressing complete surprise or disbelief
  • Portuguese: macacos me mordam — expressing complete surprise or disbelief