Definitions for the word "family" from multiple English dictionaries.
1. v. t.
The collective body of persons who live in one house, and under one head or manager; a household, including parents, children, and servants, and, as the case may be, lodgers or boarders.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. v. t.
The group comprising a husband and wife and their dependent children, constituting a fundamental unit in the organization of society.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. v. t.
Those who descend from one common progenitor; a tribe, clan, or race; kindred; house; as, the human family; the family of Abraham; the father of a family.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. v. t.
Course of descent; genealogy; line of ancestors; lineage.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. v. t.
Honorable descent; noble or respectable stock; as, a man of family.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. v. t.
A group of kindred or closely related individuals; as, a family of languages; a family of States; the chlorine family.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. v. t.
A group of organisms, either animal or vegetable, related by certain points of resemblance in structure or development, more comprehensive than a genus, because it is usually based on fewer or less pronounced points of likeness. In zoology a family is less comprehesive than an order; in botany it is often considered the same thing as an order.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. n.
(pl. -ies) 1 set of relations, esp. Parents and children. 2 a members of a household. B person''s children. 3 all the descendants of a common ancestor. 4 group of similar objects, people, etc. 5 group of related genera of animals or plants. in the family way colloq. Pregnant. [latin familia]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
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