Entry Word: family

Function: noun

Meaning: 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, kinsfolk, line, lineage, people, race, stock, tribe

Related Words nuclear family; extended family, kith; brood; descendant (or 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> — see class 2