family

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See Wiktionary:Families for a guide to language families within Wiktionary

Contents

English [edit]

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia

Etymology [edit]

From Latin familia, from famula (“female servant”).

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /ˈfæməli/, /ˈfæmli/, X-SAMPA: /"f{m@li/, /"f{mli/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Audio (UK)
    		(file)
  • Hyphenation: fa‧mi‧ly

Noun [edit]

family (countable and uncountable; plural families)

  1. (countable) A father, mother and their sons and daughters; also called nuclear family.
    Our family lives in town.
  2. (countable) A group of people related by blood, marriage, law, or custom.
    crime family, Mafia family
  3. (countable) A kin, tribe; also called extended family.
  4. (countable, biology, taxonomy) A rank in the classification of organisms, below order and above genus; a taxon at that rank.
    Magnolias belong to the family Magnoliaceae.
    • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page 4
      The closest affinities of the Jubulaceae are with the Lejeuneaceae. The two families share in common: (a) elaters usually 1-spiral, trumpet-shaped and fixed to the capsule valves, distally […]
  5. (countable) A group of people who live together, or one that is similar to one that is related by blood, marriage, law, or custom, or members of one's intimate social group.
    This is my fraternity family at the university.
    Our company is one big happy family.
    They treated me like family.
  6. (countable) Any group or aggregation of things classed together as kindred or related from possessing in common characteristics which distinguish them from other things of the same order.
    Doliracetam is a drug from the racetam family.
  7. (countable, music) A group of instrument having the same basic method of tone production.
    the brass family
    the violin family
  8. (countable, linguistics) A group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language.
    the Indo-European language family
    the Afro-Asiatic language family
  9. Used attributively.
    The dog was kept as a family pet.
    For Apocynaceae, this type of flower is a family characteristic.

Usage notes [edit]

In some dialects, family is used as a plurale tantum.

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

father, mother and their sons and daughters
group of people related by blood, marriage, law, or custom
kin, tribe
rank in a taxonomic classification, above both genus and species
taxon at this rank
group of people who live together
group of people similar to (2)
collectively, people who are members of one's intimate social group
music: a group of instrument having the same basic method of tone production
linguistics: a group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language
(used attributively)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective [edit]

family (not comparable)

  1. Suitable for children and adults.
    It's not good for a date, it's a family restaurant.
    Some animated movies are not just for kids, they are family movies.
  2. Conservative, traditional.
    The cultural struggle is for the survival of family values against all manner of atheistic amorality.
  3. (slang) Homosexual.
    I knew he was family when I first met him.

Translations [edit]

suitable for children and adults
(slang) homosexual

Derived terms [edit]

Terms derived from the noun or adjective family

Related terms [edit]

See also [edit]

Statistics [edit]

External links [edit]

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