nuclear family

American  

[noo-klee-er fam-uh-lee, fam lee, nyoo-] / ˈnu kli ər ˈfæm ə li, ˈfæm li, ˈnju- /

noun

• nuclear families
  plural

1. a social unit composed of two parents and one or more children.

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nuclear family British  

noun

1. sociol anthropol a primary social unit consisting of parents and their offspring Compare extended family

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nuclear family Cultural  

1. A type of family made up only of parents and their children. (Compare extended family.)

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Pronunciation

See nuclear ( def. ).

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• nuclear families
  plural

Etymology

Origin of nuclear family

First recorded in 1945–50

Compare meaning

How does nuclear-family compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• nuclear family vs. extended family

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nuclear family

Friedkin’s movie shifted people’s perceptions about fear and played with longstanding ideas about the nuclear family and religious ideology, themes that were starting to be contested and debated as America moved further from ’50s-era sterility.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

The author was born into a traditional nuclear family: father Carl was an entomologist and mother Margaret a dietitian/nutritionist; her brother Harold preceded her, and sister Ruth arrived a dozen years later.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025

The nuclear family is destroyed; the crime family is falling apart.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2025

Scott recalled growing up in a working-class family in Birmingham, "in a world of soap operas and things" where TV characters were mostly in heterosexual relationships or "settled down" in a nuclear family.

From BBC ● May 31, 2025

In the close quarters of an American nuclear family, their mother's prodigious energy was becoming a real drain on their self-determination.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez