a primary social group consisting of parents and their offspring, the principal function of which is provision for its members (as modifier): family quarrels, a family unit one's wife or husband and one's children one's children, as distinguished from one's husband or wife a group of persons related by blood; a group descended from a common ancestor
Compare extended familyall the persons living together in one household any group of related things or beings, esp when scientifically categorized 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 a group of historically related languages assumed to derive from one original language 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 - in the family way ⇒
pregnant
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
fam•i•ly /ˈfæməli, ˈfæmli/USA pronunciation
n., pl. -lies, adj.
n. [countable]
adj. [before a noun]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025n. [countable]
- parents and their children thought of as a group:How many people are in your family?
- Pronounsthe spouse and child or children of one person.
- a group of persons sharing common ancestry, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
- a group of related things or individuals:the halogen family of elements; The lion belongs to the cat family.
adj. [before a noun]
- of, relating to, or characteristic of a family:a family trait.
- belonging to or used by a family:the family automobile.
- Idioms in a or the family way, Informal. pregnant.
fam•i•ly
(fam′ə lē, fam′lē),USA pronunciation n., pl. -lies, adj.
n.
adj.
family, +adj.
n.
- parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not.
- the children of one person or one couple collectively:We want a large family.
- Pronounsthe spouse and children of one person:We're taking the family on vacation next week.
- any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins:to marry into a socially prominent family.
- all those persons considered as descendants of a common progenitor.
- British Terms[Chiefly Brit.]approved lineage, esp. noble, titled, famous, or wealthy ancestry:young men of family.
- a group of persons who form a household under one head, including parents, children, and servants.
- the staff, or body of assistants, of an official:the office family.
- a group of related things or people:the family of romantic poets; the halogen family of elements.
- a group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals and, frequently, live together:Many hippie communes of the sixties regarded themselves as families.
- a group of products or product models made by the same manufacturer or producer.
- Biologythe usual major subdivision of an order or suborder in the classification of plants, animals, fungi, etc., usually consisting of several genera.
- Sociology, Slang Terms[Slang.]a unit of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra operating in one area under a local leader.
- Linguisticsthe 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.Cf. stock (def. 12), subfamily (def. 2).
- Mathematics
- 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.
- a class of functions or the like defined by an expression containing a parameter.
- a set.
adj.
- of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a family:a family trait.
- belonging to or used by a family:a family automobile; a family room.
-
- suitable or appropriate for adults and children:a family amusement park.
- not containing obscene language:a family newspaper.
- Idioms in a or the family way, pregnant.
- Latin familia a household, the slaves of a household, equivalent. to famul(us) servant, slave + -ia -y3
- Middle English familie 1350–1400
- See collective noun.
family, +adj.
-
- suitable or appropriate for adults and children:a family amusement park.
- not containing obscene language:a family newspaper.
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