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What is a family?
The answer to the question “what does family mean?” is both difficult to answer and highly subjective. The word has shifted its meaning considerably since it entered our language, currently contains many different senses, and in at least one of these senses may signify different things to different people. The earliest uses of family denoted “a group of persons in the service of an individual,” a sense that is now archaic. Although this early meaning may seem far afield from the way that most of us use family today, it is not surprising when we consider that the word comes from the Latin familia, which meant “household,” a designation that included both servants and relatives.
In modern use family may refer to one of a number of different groups of people or things collectively, such as chemical compounds, related languages, plants and animals, and people who may or may not share ancestry. Family is often encountered in legal use, but even within the jargon of the law it is not restricted to a single meaning. In many legal contexts family denotes “individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption,” but in others the definition may be somewhat broader, encompassing groups of individuals not related by these things.
Synonyms
Examples of family in a Sentence
Karen De Witt, Essence, August 1994
A defendant in a racketeering trial was described yesterday as a Mafia captain who had carried out a plot to kill three rivals in the Bonanno crime family.
—Arnold H. Lubasch, New York Times, 30 Apr. 1987
Nobody ever came to the farm—through "the big gate," a mile off on the pike—except kin and a family named Rawls: a widow with two daughters and a son, my only playmate.
—Robert Penn Warren, Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back, 1980
It was quite an understood thing in the family that Lord Fawn must marry money.
—Anthony Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds, 1871
There were a lot of families at the circus.
The show is fun for the whole family.
a death in the family
There are several doctors on his mother's side of the family.
She wants to spend more time with her family.
After his father's death he became the head of the family.
She's a friend of the family.
He spent a quiet evening at home with family.
trying to find a balance between work and family
He's devoted to his wife and family.
Ray Sanchez, CNN, 27 Oct. 2024
But the often-not-so-secret CIA wars will continue just over the U.S.-Mexico border, with Joe juggling nation-saving combat and family flare-ups at home.
—Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 27 Oct. 2024
Paloma Chavez, Sacramento Bee, 27 May 2024
New York Mortgage Trust invests in single family and multi-family assets, and is market capitalized at $637 million.
—John Navin, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for family 
Dictionary Entries Near family
Cite this Entry
“Family.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
family
noun
Legal Definition
family
noun
Note: The interpretation of the word family in a law context depends upon the area of the law concerned (as contract or zoning law), the purpose of the document (as a statute or contract) in which it is used, and the facts of the case. Often for zoning purposes, the occupants of a group home are considered a family if the organization is like that of a family or if the home is going to be a permanent rather than a transitional residence for the occupants.
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