Sometimes the speaker (or author) specifies their meaning for the word "uncle", for example:
The gelding was mine, a gift from a great-uncle on my mother’s side. (Educated by Tara Westover)
But suppose that you read about someone's uncle in a certain text and the writer doesn't mention if the uncle is:
- their father's brother
- or their mother's brother
- or their father's sister's husband
- or their mother's sister's husband
How can you recognize which one is the "uncle"?
Basically, is there any "default option" in the absence of a certain answer?
PS: In some languages like Albanian, Arabic, Persian, and Polish, unlike the English language, no single inclusive term describing both a person's kinship to their parental male sibling or parental male in-law exists. Instead, there are specific terms describing a person's kinship. For example, the Persian language has a special word for the uncle of the father side (amou-عمو) and the uncle of the mother side (daiyee-دایی)
*This postscript was added after some fine answers had been offered.