A Family

1. (countable) A group of people who are closely related to one another (by blood, marriage or adoption); kin; in particular, a set of parents and their children; an immediate family.
2. (countable) An extended family: a group of people who are related to one another by blood or marriage.
3. (countable) A nuclear family: a mother and father who are married and cohabiting and their child or children.
4. (uncountable) Members of one's family collectively.
5. (countable) A (close-knit) group of people related by blood, friendship, marriage, law, or custom, especially if they live or work together.

1. 1. (gay slang) The gay community.
2. (uncountable) Lineage, especially honorable or noble lineage.
3. (countable, biology, taxonomy) A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below order and above genus; a taxon at that rank. Synonym: familia
4. (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.
5. (set theory, countable) A collection of sets, especially of subsets of a given set.
6. (countable, music) A group of instruments having the same basic method of tone production.
7. (countable, linguistics) A group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language.

Usage notes

• In some dialects, family is used as a plural (only) noun.

Synonyms

• (relatives): flesh and blood, kin, kinfolk, fam
• (class): class