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

He is survived by his wife, Linda, four children, seven grandchildren and extended family. —Los Angeles Times, 24 Oct. 2024

Last week, Erik and Lyle’s extended family held a press conference calling for Gascón’s help to reexamine the case. —Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Oct. 2024

Trending on Billboard The blurry clip of a barely discernible 13-year-old Bieber seems like nothing special at first, just a video his mom Pattie Mallette uploaded to the platform for his extended family to check out. —Rania Aniftos, Billboard, 22 Oct. 2024

Erik and Lyle Menendez’s extended family is expected to gather outside a Los Angeles courthouse Wednesday as the district attorney weighs whether the brothers, found guilty of killing their parents almost three decades ago, should be resentenced and possibly released. —Andrew Blankstein, NBC News, 16 Oct. 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