family
Americannoun
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families
plural
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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; see -y 3
Explanation
If you refer to your family, you're probably talking about a group of people who are related to you by blood or marriage. Family is used many different ways. It can mean "household," or the people you live with, or it can refer to a partner and the children you are raising together. Your family can include people you've never met, like distant cousins, if you're using it to talk about the wider group of all of your relatives. There's also the scientific term family, which is a term that ranks the way different organisms are related to each other.
Vocabulary lists containing family
It's All in the Family
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Life Science: Organisms and Taxonomy
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Chemistry - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
The Bronx-born Dominican actor missed her family, friends and the theater company she helped start in 1992.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
But there are also many older people who prefer staying in their family homes or apartments and need support.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Music, family photos and/or a family pet can help restore peace, but it’s not always so simple or straightforward.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
Over time, her trips back home became less frequent, especially after she got pregnant with her now teenage son and her New York family relocated down South.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
I then put on my favorite Rick and Morty nightshirt, the one that’s comfier than a cloud, and join my family in the kitchen.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
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As younger people move away from their families, and with limited social infrastructure to support the elderly, a gap is only widening, experts say.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
He also said he is working with Pentagon leaders to smooth out deployment extensions and provide more certainty to sailors and their families.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
The high cost of living is a big factor for people's discontent, as residents feel supermarket and petrol prices are impossibly high for working families.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
“Across the world, families have endured separation, communities have mourned, and many have searched for peace, comfort, and healing,” reads the event’s official website.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026
It’s one thing for Theo to look at the names with me, plotting which families to visit next.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.