fam·i·ly

(făm′ə-lē, făm′lē)

n. pl. fam·i·lies

a. A fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children.

b. The children of one of these groups: She raised a large family.

c. A group of persons related by descent or marriage: My whole family, including my cousins, gets together once a year. See Usage Note at collective noun.

2. People in the same line of descent; lineage: comes from an old Virginia family.

3. Obsolete All the members of a household living under one roof.

4. A locally independent organized crime unit, as of the Cosa Nostra.

a. A group of like things; a class: the family of brass instruments.

b. A group of individuals derived from a common stock: the family of human beings.

6. Biology A taxonomic category of related organisms ranking below an order and above a genus. A family usually consists of several genera.

7. Linguistics A group of languages descended from the same parent language, such as the Indo-European language family.

8. Mathematics A set of functions or surfaces that can be generated by varying the parameters of a general equation.

9. Chemistry

a. A group of elements with similar chemical properties.

b. A vertical column in the periodic table of elements.

10. Physics Any of the three generations of elementary fermions.

adj.

1. Of or having to do with a family: family problems.

2. Being suitable for a family: family movies.

Idiom:

in the family way

Pregnant.

[Middle English familie, from Latin familia, household, servants of a household, from famulus, servant.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

family

(ˈfæmɪlɪ; ˈfæmlɪ)

n, pl -lies

1. (Sociology)

a. a primary social group consisting of parents and their offspring, the principal function of which is provision for its members

b. (as modifier): family quarrels; a family unit.

2. one's wife or husband and one's children

3. one's children, as distinguished from one's husband or wife

4. (Genetics) a group of persons related by blood; a group descended from a common ancestor. Compare extended family

5. all the persons living together in one household

6. any group of related things or beings, esp when scientifically categorized

7. (Biology) biology 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

8. (Biology) ecology a group of organisms of the same species living together in a community

9. (Linguistics) a group of historically related languages assumed to derive from one original language

10. (Law) chiefly US an independent local group of the Mafia

11. (Mathematics) maths 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: a family of concentric circles.

12. (General Physics) physics the isotopes, collectively, that comprise a radioactive series

13. in the family way informal pregnant

[C15: from Latin familia a household, servants of the house, from famulus servant]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fam•i•ly

(ˈfæm ə li, ˈfæm li)

n., pl. -lies,
adj. n.

1. parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not.

2. the children of one person or one couple collectively.

3. the spouse and children of one person.

4. any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

5. all those persons considered as descendants of a common progenitor.

6. a group of persons who form a household, esp. under one head.

7. the staff, or body of assistants, of an official: the presidential family.

8. a group of related things: the halogen family of elements.

9. a group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals.

10. Biol. the usual major subdivision of an order or suborder in the classification of plants, animals, fungi, etc., usu. consisting of several genera.

11. Ling. the largest category into which languages related by common origin can be classified with certainty. Compare stock (def. 12), subfamily (def. 2).

12. a local unit of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra.

adj.

13. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a family: a family trait.

14. belonging to or used by a family.

15.

a. suitable or appropriate for adults and children: a family amusement park.

b. not containing obscene language: a family newspaper.

Idioms:

in a or the family way, pregnant.

[1350–1400; Middle English familie < Latin familia]

usage: See collective noun.

fam·i·ly

(făm′ə-lē)

A group of organisms ranking above a genus and below an order. See Table at taxonomy.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

family

- First referred to the servants of a household and then to both the servants and the descendants of a common ancestor. It comes from Latin familia, "household; household servants," which came from another Latin term, famulus, "servant." It was not until 1667 that the term was used specifically for parents and their children.

Family

an assembly of objects with some common feature; a body of servants in a house; the members of a family. See also clan, set.

Examples: family of curves, 1741; of gladiators; of languages, 1875; of legends; of myths; of servants, 1722; of thieves, 1749; of yews, 1731.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	family - a social unit living together; "he moved his family to Virginia"; "It was a good Christian household"; "I waited until the whole house was asleep"; "the teacher asked how many people made up his home" household, menage, home, house broken home - a family in which the parents have separated or divorced conjugal family, nuclear family - a family consisting of parents and their children and grandparents of a marital partner extended family - a family consisting of the nuclear family and their blood relatives foster family - the family of a fosterling foster home - a household in which an orphaned or delinquent child is placed (usually by a social-service agency) menage a trois - household for three; an arrangement where a married couple and a lover of one of them live together while sharing sexual relations social unit, unit - an organization regarded as part of a larger social group; "the coach said the offensive unit did a good job"; "after the battle the soldier had trouble rejoining his unit"
	2.	family - primary social group; parents and children; "he wanted to have a good job before starting a family" family unit kin group, kindred, kinship group, clan, kin, tribe - group of people related by blood or marriage mates, couple, match - a pair of people who live together; "a married couple from Chicago" man and wife, married couple, marriage - two people who are married to each other; "his second marriage was happier than the first"; "a married couple without love" child, kid - a human offspring (son or daughter) of any age; "they had three children"; "they were able to send their kids to college" parent - a father or mother; one who begets or one who gives birth to or nurtures and raises a child; a relative who plays the role of guardian sib, sibling - a person's brother or sister
	3.	family - a collection of things sharing a common attribute; "there are two classes of detergents" category, class grammatical category, syntactic category - (grammar) a category of words having the same grammatical properties substitution class, paradigm - the class of all items that can be substituted into the same position (or slot) in a grammatical sentence (are in paradigmatic relation with one another) aggregation, collection, accumulation, assemblage - several things grouped together or considered as a whole brass family - (music) the family of brass instruments violin family - (music) the family of bowed stringed instruments woodwind family - (music) the family of woodwind instruments stamp - a type or class; "more men of his stamp are needed" declension - a class of nouns or pronouns or adjectives in Indo-European languages having the same (or very similar) inflectional forms; "the first declension in Latin" conjugation - a class of verbs having the same inflectional forms denomination - a class of one kind of unit in a system of numbers or measures or weights or money; "he flashed a fistful of bills of large denominations" histocompatibility complex - a family of fifty or more genes on the sixth human chromosome that code for proteins on the surfaces of cells and that play a role in the immune response superphylum - (biology) a taxonomic group ranking between a phylum and below a class or subclass
	4.	family - people descended from a common ancestor; "his family has lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower" kinfolk, kinsfolk, phratry, family line, sept, folk people - members of a family line; "his people have been farmers for generations"; "are your people still alive?" homefolk - the people of your home locality (especially your own family); "he wrote his homefolk every day" house - aristocratic family line; "the House of York" dynasty - a sequence of powerful leaders in the same family gens, name - family based on male descent; "he had no sons and there was no one to carry on his name" blood line, bloodline, ancestry, lineage, pedigree, stemma, line of descent, parentage, blood, origin, descent, stock, line - the descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has been warriors"
	5.	family - a person having kinship with another or others; "he's kin"; "he's family" kin, kinsperson affine - (anthropology) kin by marriage relative, relation - a person related by blood or marriage; "police are searching for relatives of the deceased"; "he has distant relations back in New Jersey"
	6.	family - (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more genera; "sharks belong to the fish family" Bunyaviridae - a large family of arboviruses that affect a wide range of hosts (mainly vertebrates and arthropods) Filoviridae - a family of threadlike RNA viruses that cause diseases in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys and chimpanzees) Togaviridae - a family of arboviruses carried by arthropods Flaviviridae - a family of arboviruses carried by arthropods Arenaviridae - a family of arborviruses carried by arthropods Rhabdoviridae - a family of arborviruses carried by arthropods Reoviridae - a family of arboviruses carried by arthropods bacteria family - a family of bacteria protoctist family - any of the families of Protoctista Endamoebidae, family Endamoebidae - a large family of endoparasitic amebas that invade the digestive tract fish family - any of various families of fish chordate family - any family in the phylum Chordata bird family - a family of warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings amphibian family - any family of amphibians reptile family - a family of reptiles arthropod family - any of the arthropods mammal family - a family of mammals coelenterate family - a family of coelenterates ctenophore family - a family of ctenophores worm family - a family of worms mollusk family - a family of mollusks family Panorpidae, Panorpidae - a family of insects of the order Mecoptera Bittacidae, family Bittacidae - a family of predacious tropical insects of the order Mecoptera echinoderm family - a family of echinoderms biological science, biology - the science that studies living organisms taxon, taxonomic category, taxonomic group - animal or plant group having natural relations order - (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families form family - (biology) an artificial taxonomic category for organisms of which the true relationships are obscure subfamily - (biology) a taxonomic category below a family tribe - (biology) a taxonomic category between a genus and a subfamily genus - (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more species moss family - a family of mosses liliopsid family, monocot family - family of flowering plants having a single cotyledon (embryonic leaf) in the seed dicot family, magnoliopsid family - family of flowering plants having two cotyledons (embryonic leaves) in the seed which usually appear at germination fungus family - includes lichen families plant family - a family of plants fern family - families of ferns and fern allies
	7.	family - a loose affiliation of gangsters in charge of organized criminal activities crime syndicate, syndicate, mob gangdom, gangland, organized crime - underworld organizations Cosa Nostra, Maffia, Mafia - a crime syndicate in the United States; organized in families; believed to have important relations to the Sicilian Mafia
	8.	family - an association of people who share common beliefs or activities; "the message was addressed not just to employees but to every member of the company family"; "the church welcomed new members into its fellowship" fellowship association - a formal organization of people or groups of people; "he joined the Modern Language Association" koinonia - Christian fellowship or communion with God or with fellow Christians; said in particular of the early Christian community

family

noun

1. relations, people, children, issue, relatives, household, folk (informal), offspring, descendants, brood, kin, nuclear family, progeny, kindred, next of kin, kinsmen, ménage, kith and kin, your nearest and dearest, kinsfolk, your own flesh and blood His family are completely behind him, whatever he decides.

2. children, kids (informal), offspring, little ones, munchkins (informal, chiefly U.S.), littlies (Austral. informal) Are you going to have a family?

3. ancestors, forebears, parentage, forefathers, house, line, race, blood, birth, strain, tribe, sept, clan, descent, dynasty, pedigree, extraction, ancestry, lineage, genealogy, line of descent, stemma, stirps Her family came to Los Angeles at the turn of the century.

4. species, group, class, system, order, kind, network, genre, classification, subdivision, subclass foods in the cabbage family, such as Brussels sprouts

Related words
adjective familial

Quotations
"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them" [Desmond Tutu address at enthronement as archbishop of Cape Town]
"The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape" [Dodie Smith Dear Octopus]
"All happy families are alike, but every unhappy one is unhappy in its own way" [Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina]

Proverbs
"Blood is thicker than water"

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

family

noun

1. A group of usually related people living together as a unit:

house, household, ménage.

2. A group of people sharing common ancestry:

clan, house, kindred, lineage, stock, tribe.

Idioms: flesh and blood, kith and kin.

3. One's relatives collectively:

kin, kindred, kinfolk.

4. One's ancestors or their character or one's ancestral derivation:

ancestry, birth, blood, bloodline, descent, extraction, genealogy, line, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, seed, stock.

adjective

Of or relating to the family or household:

domestic, familial, home, homely, household.

Translations

أُسْرَهعائِلَةعائِلَهفَصيلَه نَباتيَّه أو حَيَوانيَّهنَسْل، آل

родасемеенсемейство

rodinarodinnýčeleďdruhtřída

familiefamilie-slægt=-familieæt

Familie Familien...Geschlecht Klan Wohngemeinschaft

οικογένεια οικογενειακός

familioparenco

familia

perhesukuheimo

famille maison parent familial

ख़ानदानपरिवार

obiteljporodicarodsvojtafamilija

családcsaládiházi

ættfjölskyldaskyldmenniættingiættingjar

famiglia

家族科

가족

genealogijos medisgiminėgimstamumo reguliavimasšeimašeimyna

bērni un sievadzimtaģimeneģimenes-saime

gezin stam clan familie

familie kjernefamilie

rodzina

família

семья семейство род семейный домашний

čeľaďrodinný

družinarod

familjhushållbörd

ครอบครัว

aile familya tür

خاندان

gia đinhgia đình

家庭家族科子女

family

[ˈfæmɪlɪ]

A. N (= close relatives, group of animals) → familia f
she's one of the family → es como de la familia
do you have any family? (= relatives) → ¿tiene usted parientes?; (= children) → ¿tiene usted hijos?
to run in the family → ser cosa de familia
to be in the family way (o.f.) → estar en estado de buena esperanza
to get or put a girl in the family way (o.f.) → dejar encinta a una joven

B. CPD [jewels] → de la familia; [dinner, resemblance] → de familia; [Bible] → familiar
family allowance N (Brit) (formerly) → ayuda f familiar
family business N → negocio m familiar
family butcher N → carnicero m doméstico
family credit N (Brit) → ayuda f familiar
Family Division N (Brit) (Jur) sala del High Court que entiende de derecho de familia
family doctor N → médico/a m/f de cabecera
family friend N → amigo/a m/f de la familia
family hotel N → hotel m familiar
family income N → ingresos mpl familiares
family life N → vida f doméstica
family man N (= having family) → padre m de familia; (= home-loving) → hombre m casero or de su casa
family name N → apellido m
family pet N → animal m doméstico
family planning N → planificación f familiar
family planning clinic N → centro m de planificación familiar
family practice N (US) (Med) (= work) → medicina f general; (= place) → consulta f
family therapy N → terapia f familiar
family tree N → árbol m genealógico

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

family

[ˈfæmli ˈfæmɪli]

n (= relatives) → famille f
the Cooke family → la famille Cooke
a family of five → une famille de cinq personnes
to start a family → fonder une famille

modif [background, history] → familial(e); [income, budget] → familial(e); [car] → familial(e); [holiday] → en famille; [relationship, ties] → de famille; [member] → de la famille; [home] → de famille; [business, firm] → familial
the family dog → le chien de la famille family album, family friend, family lifefamily album n (= photo album) → album m de famillefamily allowance n (British) → allocations fpl familialesfamily circle n → cercle m familialfamily credit n (British) → complément m familialFamily Crisis Intervention Unit n (US) → police-secours f (intervenant en cas de drames familiaux)family doctor n → médecin mf de famillefamily friend n → ami(e) m/f de la famillefamily life n → vie f de famillefamily man n [family men] (pl)
he's a family man → il aime la vie de famillefamily-minded [ˌfæmɪliˈmaɪndɪd] adj
to be family-minded → avoir le sens de la famillefamily name n → nom m de famillefamily planning n → planning m familialfamily planning clinic n → centre m de planning familialfamily practitioner n (US) → généraliste mffamily room n

(US) (in house) → salle f de séjour (réservée à la famille plutôt qu'aux invités)

(British) (in pub) salle autorisée aux enfants; (in hotel) → chambre f familialefamily-size packet n → paquet m familialfamily tree n → arbre m généalogiquefamily values npl → valeurs fpl familiales

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

family

→ Familie f; (including cousins, aunts etc) → Verwandtschaft f; (= lineage) → Familie f, → Haus nt, → Geschlecht nt (geh); to start a family → eine Familie gründen; they plan to add to their family → sie planen Familienzuwachs; has he any family? → hat er Familie?; it runs in the family → das liegt in der Familie; of good family → aus guter Familie, aus gutem Hause; he’s one of the family → er gehört zur Familie; with just the immediate family → im engsten Familienkreis; a family of four → eine vierköpfige Familie

(of plants, animals, languages etc) → Familie f; the family of man → die Menschheit

attr → Familien-; family business → Familienunternehmen nt; a family friend → ein Freund/eine Freundin des Hauses or der Familie; the family house → das Haus der Familie; a family house → ein Einfamilienhaus nt; the family silver → das Tafelsilber; she’s in the family way (inf) → sie ist in anderen Umständen; family conference → Familienrat m; family resemblance → Familienähnlichkeit f; family values → Familienwerte pl, → familiäre Werte pl

family

family allowance

n (dated) → ˜ Kindergeld nt

family business

n → Familienbetrieb m

family butcher

n D. Crosby, Family Butcher → D. Crosby, Fleischermeister; our/the family → unsere/die Stammfleischerei

family circle

(= family members) → Familienkreis m

(US Theat) → zweiter Rang

family company

n → Familienunternehmen nt → or -betrieb m

family credit

n (Brit) Sozialleistung für Geringverdiener, um das Familieneinkommen auf einen Mindestbetrag anzuheben

Family Division

n (Brit Jur) für Familienrecht zuständige Abteilung des obersten Gerichts, → ˜ Familiengericht nt

family doctor

n → Hausarzt m → /-ärztin f

Family Health Services Authority

n (Brit) regionale Gesundheitsbehörde, → ˜ Gesundheitsamt nt

family hotel

n → Familienpension f

Family Income Supplement

n (dated) → Beihilfe f → (zum Lebensunterhalt) (für Familien)

family man

n (home-loving) → häuslich veranlagter Mann; (with a family) → Familienvater m

family name

n → Familienname m, → Nachname m

family planning

n → Familienplanung f

family planning clinic

n → Familienberatungsstelle f

family reunion

n → Familientreffen nt

family room

(esp US: in house) → Wohnzimmer nt

(Brit) (in pub) für Kinder zugelassener Raum in einem Lokal (in hotel) → Familienzimmer nt

family-size

adj → in Haushaltsgröße; car, packet → Familien-; house → Einfamilien-

family tree

n → Stammbaum m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

family

[ˈfæmɪlɪ]

1. n (gen) → famiglia
it runs in the family → è di famiglia
she's quite one of the family → è come se facesse parte della famiglia

2. adj (jewels, life, business) → di famiglia, familiare

family

(ˈfӕməli) – plural ˈfamilies – noun

1. (singular or plural) a man, his wife and their children. These houses were built for families; The (members of the) Smith family are all very athletic; (also adjective) a family holiday.

2. a group of people related to each other, including cousins, grandchildren etc. He comes from a wealthy family; (also adjective) the family home.

3. the children of a man and his wife. When I get married I should like a large family.

4. a group of plants, animals, languages etc that are connected in some way. In spite of its name, a koala bear is not a member of the bear family.

family planning

controlling or limiting the number of children that people have especially by using a means of contraception. a family planning clinic.

family tree

(a plan showing) a person's ancestors and relations.

family

→ عائِلَة rodina familie Familie οικογένεια familia perhe famille obitelj famiglia 家族 가족 gezin familie rodzina família семья familj ครอบครัว aile gia đình 家庭

fam·i·ly

n. familia;

___ man → padre de familia;

___ name → apellido;

___ practice → práctica de ___;

___ therapy → terapia de ___.

family

adj familiar; n (pl -lies) familia; dysfunctional — familia disfuncional; extended — familia extendida; — member familiar mf; — planning planificación f familiar; — practice medicina familiar or de familia; — treeárbol genealógico or familiar