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.

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Etymology

Origin of joint family

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

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

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026

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

Contrary to cramped joint family homes where many people share a room and a bathroom, the Garg home is spacious.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2020

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

Sympathy has had no time to develop, and consequently his sentiments are confined within the limits of his own joint family, and do not reach up to the foreigner or down to the lower animals.

From The Fijians A Study of the Decay of Custom by Thomson, Basil