family

1 a group of persons who come from the same ancestor <the Adams family made remarkable contributions to American life for more than two centuries> Synonyms blood, clan, folks, house, kin, kindred, kinfolk (or kinfolks), kinsfolk, line, lineage, people, race, stock, tribe Related Words blended family, nuclear family; extended family, household, kith; brood; descendant (also descendent), issue, offspring, progeny, scion, seed; clansman, kinsman, kinswoman, relative; dynasty Near Antonyms ancestry, birth, descent, extraction, origin, pedigree

2 one of the units into which a whole is divided on the basis of a common characteristic <the flute, the clarinet, the oboe, and other members of the woodwind family> Synonyms bracket, category, classification, division, class, genus, grade, group, kind, league, order, rank(s), rubric, set, species, tier, typeRelated Words description, feather, ilk, kidney, like, manner, nature, sort; branch, section, speciality, specialty, subclass, subdivision, subgroup, subspecies, variety; breed, race; generation; heading, label, title