extended family

[ik-sten-did fam-uh-lee, fam lee]

noun

1. a kinship group consisting of a family nucleus and various relatives, as grandparents, usually living in one household and functioning as a larger unit.

2. (loosely) one's family conceived of as including aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and sometimes close friends and colleagues.

extended family

noun

1. sociol anthropol a social unit that contains the nuclear family together with blood relatives, often spanning three or more generations

extended family

1. A type of family in which relatives in addition to parents and children (such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) live in a single household. A nuclear family forms the core of an extended family.

Word History and Origins

Origin of extended family¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

“Community can mean friends, extended families, adopted families, even the community which you live in,” Ung said.

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Mr. Desplechin takes a quick-cutting, kaleidoscopic approach to this domestic epic, and evokes in richly melodramatic style the feeling of passing the holidays with extended family.

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But my Ghanaian extended family disagrees; to them, I’m not actually Ghanaian.

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The tentacles of her extended family reach into high levels of the military and other public offices.

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He identifies “the desire to leave,” which overcame him during long weekend visits to extended family, as one of the first sensations he experienced.

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Related Words

• nuclear family