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

• home
• house
• household
• ménage

Examples of extended family in a Sentence

their extended family includes a grandmother and widowed aunt

Recent Examples on the Web

My question is: Can a middle-class mother in our present-day, urban, Western society, living without extended family, having to work to sustain her family financially, confined to a relatively small apartment, hope to realize herself? —Liana Finck, The New Yorker, 1 Oct. 2024

The Christmas season offers a great excuse for Sienna to visit her now college-aged brother Jonathan (Elliot Fullam) and their extended family, who are understandably wary of the siblings’ past. —Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 Sep. 2024

Her extended family — brothers, a sister, twin aunts, a gaggle of cousins — shared a home. —Eli Cahan, Rolling Stone, 22 Sep. 2024

He is survived by his wife, Lindsey, step-daughter Dana and two granddaughters, his son Geordie, and extended family in Australia. —Lars Brandle, Billboard, 9 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1935, in the meaning defined above

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