extended family

noun

: a family that includes in one household near relatives (such as grandparents, aunts, or uncles) in addition to a nuclear family

Given space, there are ways in which even larger populations than the extended family can be accommodated under one roof.

—Paul Oliver

also : an extensive group of people who are related by blood or marriage or who otherwise regard themselves as a large family

Four out of every five people who go through a first divorce remarry … . Thus it is that husbands and wives, their former partners, children and stepchildren, and a whole constellation of grandparents and other relatives are brought together in the new American extended family.

—Michael Norman

During his five years at Owen High, he turned his teams into an extended family and tried to instill in his players the same sense of self-worth that Baldwin had imparted to him years before.

—William Nack

Synonyms

• household
• house

Examples of extended family in a Sentence

their extended family includes a grandmother and widowed aunt

Recent Examples on the Web

And then the others are the sort of extended family of longtime money — there's many examples of all of that. —EW.com, 26 Aug. 2025

The 10 people who lived there, a mix of extended family members and a pair of housemates, are all originally from Honduras and hold varying immigration statuses. —Shomik Mukherjee, Mercury News, 21 Aug. 2025

Schoolteacher Suleman Khan lost 25 members of his extended family. —Muhammad Sajjad, Chicago Tribune, 16 Aug. 2025

He is survived by brother David, sister-in-law Cynthia, nephews Jesse, Brett, and Austin, and other extended family. —Greg Evans, Deadline, 15 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1935, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for extended family

• multifamily
• nonfamily
• stepfamily
• subfamily

Kids Definition

extended family

noun

: a family that includes parents and children and other relatives (as grandparents, aunts, or uncles) in the same household

Medical Definition

extended family

noun

: a family that includes in one household near relatives in addition to a nuclear family