family

3 syllables

Quick answer

As a noun, family means a group of people who are closely related to one another (by blood, marriage or adoption). As an adjective, it means suitable for children and adults.

Meanings of family

21 meanings

noun

A group of people who are closely related to one another (by blood, marriage or adoption); kin; in particular, a set of parents and their children; an immediate family.
“Our family lives in town.”
“This is a family restaurant, stop making out!”
An extended family: a group of people who are related to one another by blood or marriage.
A nuclear family: a mother and father who are married and cohabiting and their child or children.
“The cultural struggle is for the survival of family values against all manner of atheistic amorality.”
“We must preserve the family unit if we want to save civilisation!”
Members of one's family collectively.
“I have a lot of family in Australia.”
“He has a sister, but no other family.”
A (close-knit) group of people related by blood, friendship, marriage, law, or custom, especially if they live or work together.
“crime family, Mafia family”
“This is my fraternity family at the university.”
gay slangThe gay community.
Lineage, especially honorable or noble lineage.
biologytaxonomyA category in the classification of organisms, ranking below order and above genus; a taxon at that rank.
“Magnolias belong to the family Magnoliaceae.”
Any group or aggregation of things classed together as kindred or related from possessing in common characteristics which distinguish them from other things of the same order.
“Doliracetam is a drug from the racetam family.”
set theoryA collection of sets, especially of subsets of a given set.
musicA group of instruments having the same basic method of tone production.
“the brass family;&emsp; the violin family”
linguisticsA group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language.
“the Indo-European language family;&emsp; the Afroasiatic language family”
A social unit living together
“he moved his family to Virginia”
“It was a good Christian household”
“I waited until the whole house was asleep”
Similar: household, house, home, menage
A collection of things sharing a common attribute
“there are two classes of detergents”
Similar: class, category

adjective

Suitable for children and adults.
“It's not good for a date, it's a family restaurant.”
“Some animated movies are not just for kids, they are family movies.”
gay slangHomosexual.
“I knew he was family when I first met him.”

Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).