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joint family

American  

noun

  1. a type of extended family composed of parents, their children, and the children's spouses and offspring in one household.


Etymology

Origin of joint family

First recorded in 1875–80

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:

These drama kings and queens of the novel are a chameleonic joint family of disjoint motives.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 23, 2026

It was once inhabited by a boisterous joint family, but today, only he and his mother live there.

From BBC Dec. 28, 2022

His mother later told me that she and K.’s father hoped to live there with their sons and their wives and eventual children, as a traditional Indian joint family.

From New York Times Dec. 7, 2022

Without exception, nuclear families headed by men got the money, undermining the joint family system and the status of women, who had previously played an important role in making key economic decisions.

From Scientific American Mar. 25, 2020

Professor Hearn followed Sir Henry Maine in thinking that the clan was an expansion of the patriarchal joint family; but the reasons against this view are given subsequently.

From The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

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