family
Americannoun
plural
families-
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a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not.
the traditional family.
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a social unit consisting of one or more adults together with the children they care for.
a single-parent family.
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the children of one person or one couple collectively.
We want a large family.
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the spouse and children of one person.
I'm taking the family on vacation next week.
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any group of people closely related by blood or marriage, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
to marry into a socially prominent family.
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all those people considered as descendants of a common progenitor.
the Tudor family of England.
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Chiefly British. approved lineage, especially noble, titled, famous, or wealthy ancestry.
young men of family.
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a group of people who form a household under one head, including parents, children, servants, etc.
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the staff, or body of assistants, of an official.
the presidential family.
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a group of people or things that are related by common characteristics, features, or properties.
the family of romantic poets; the halogen family of elements.
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a group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals and, frequently, live together: I’m not in contact with my relatives, so my friends are my family.
Many hippie communes of the sixties regarded themselves as families.
I’m not in contact with my relatives, so my friends are my family.
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a group of people who are considered to be united in a common occupation or enterprise.
Our volunteers are an important part of our hospital family.
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an animal or animals with their young.
There goes a duck family crossing the road.
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a group of products or product models made by the same manufacturer or producer.
Chevrolet's family of cars.
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Biology. the usual major subdivision of an order or suborder in the classification of plants, animals, fungi, etc., usually consisting of several genera.
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Slang. a unit of an organized crime syndicate, especially the Mafia or Cosa Nostra, operating in one area under a local leader.
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Linguistics. the largest category into which languages related by common origin can be classified with certainty.
Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Austronesian are the most widely spoken families of languages.
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Mathematics.
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a given class of solutions of the same basic equation, differing from one another only by the different values assigned to the constants in the equation.
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a class of functions or the like defined by an expression containing a parameter.
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a set.
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adjective
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of, relating to, or characteristic of a family.
a family trait.
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belonging to or used by a family.
a family automobile; a family room.
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suitable or appropriate for adults and children.
a family amusement park.
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not containing obscene language.
The students made a game of looking up swearwords during library time, so the librarian is investing in a new set of family dictionaries.
idioms
noun
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a primary social group consisting of parents and their offspring, the principal function of which is provision for its members
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( as modifier )
family quarrels
a family unit
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one's wife or husband and one's children
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one's children, as distinguished from one's husband or wife
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a group of persons related by blood; a group descended from a common ancestor Compare extended family
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all the persons living together in one household
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any group of related things or beings, esp when scientifically categorized
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biology any of the taxonomic groups into which an order is divided and which contains one or more genera. Felidae (cat family) and Canidae (dog family) are two families of the order Carnivora
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ecology a group of organisms of the same species living together in a community
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a group of historically related languages assumed to derive from one original language
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an independent local group of the Mafia
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maths a group of curves or surfaces whose equations differ from a given equation only in the values assigned to one or more constants in each curve
a family of concentric circles
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physics the isotopes, collectively, that comprise a radioactive series
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informal pregnant
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A group of organisms ranking above a genus and below an order. The names of families end in –ae, a plural ending in Latin. In the animal kingdom, family names end in –idae, as in Canidae (dogs and their kin), while those in the plant kingdom usually end in –aceae, as in Rosaceae (roses and their kin).
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See Table at taxonomy
Grammar
See collective noun.
Other Word Forms
- antifamily adjective
- interfamily adjective
Etymology
Origin of family
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English familie, from Latin familia “a household, the slaves of a household, domestics” equivalent to famul(us) “attendant, servant, slave” + -ia noun suffix; -y 3
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"To my stable team, my whole family back home... Everyone close to me knows how hard this last year has been for me," Boulter added.
From BBC
“I’m born and raised in the South Bay, and my family lives in, effectively, what would be the blast radius if another accident happened,” Truman said.
From Los Angeles Times
The family entered the country legally in 2022 and filed for asylum.
From Barron's
Those closest to Arnold will "remember not only his talent, but his warmth, humility, faith, and deep love for his family and friends", it said.
From BBC
For the time being, Momin has returned to her life at home, keeping busy with her family and her book club.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
