extended family
Americannoun
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a kinship group consisting of a family nucleus and various relatives, as grandparents, usually living in one household and functioning as a larger unit.
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(loosely) one's family conceived of as including aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and sometimes close friends and colleagues.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of extended family
First recorded in 1940–45
Compare meaning
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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.
When I look at the community he ultimately built around himself – the performers, writers, producers, actors, and friends who became his extended family – it feels like a continuation of that impulse.
From Salon • Jul. 5, 2026
Clinical Professor of Psychology at Weill Cornell Medicine, says the decline of extended family involvement has helped fuel what the U.S.
From Science Daily • Jun. 13, 2026
They’re also at times footing the bill for their extended family.
From Barron's • May 27, 2026
He remarried when I was 12, and I spent weekends with him and his new wife in the city and idyllic summers with extended family in Illinois.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 26, 2026
The plan was that he would eventually bring as many members of his extended family as possible to the United States.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
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.
