family

/ˈfɛm(ɘ)li//ˈfæm(ɪ)li//ˈfæm(ə)li/

noun

  1. 1

    A group of people who are closely related to one another (by blood, marriage or adoption); kin; for example, a set of parents and their children; an immediate family.

    Our family lives in town.
  2. 2

    An extended family; a group of people who are related to one another by blood or marriage.

    1915, William T. Groves, A History and Genealogy of the Groves Family in America
  3. 3

    A (close-knit) group of people related by blood, friendship, marriage, law, or custom, especially if they live or work together.

    Our company is one big happy family.
  4. 4

    Lineage, especially an honorable one

  5. 5

    A rank in the classification of organisms, below order and above genus; a taxon at that rank.

    Magnolias belong to the family Magnoliaceae.
  6. 6

    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. 7

    A group of instruments having the same basic method of tone production.

    the brass family;  the violin family
  8. 8

    A group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language.

    the Indo-European language family;  the Afroasiatic language family
  9. 9

    Used attributively.

    For Apocynaceae, this type of flower is a family characteristic.

adjective

  1. 1

    Suitable for children and adults.

    It's not good for a date, it's a family restaurant.
  2. 2

    Conservative, traditional.

    The cultural struggle is for the survival of family values against all manner of atheistic amorality.
  3. 3

    Homosexual.

    I knew he was family when I first met him.

noun

  1. 1

    A person belonging to a particular family; a close relative or relation.

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