extended family

[ik-sten-did fam-uh-lee, fam lee]

noun

1. a kinship group consisting of a family nucleus and various relatives, as grandparents, usually living in one household and functioning as a larger unit.

2. (loosely) one's family conceived of as including aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and sometimes close friends and colleagues.

extended family

noun

1. sociol anthropol a social unit that contains the nuclear family together with blood relatives, often spanning three or more generations

extended family

1. A type of family in which relatives in addition to parents and children (such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) live in a single household. A nuclear family forms the core of an extended family.

Word History and Origins

Origin of extended family¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

It marked the first time that the native Californians met their extended family, including a platoon of curious cousins.

From Los Angeles Times

“Butterfly” is a sort of an action soap, an extended family melodrama with guns.

From Los Angeles Times

He said "hundreds" of members of his extended family had been killed in Gaza.

From BBC

Many of the grads are first-generation college students, and the achievement is celebrated by cheering extended families.

From Los Angeles Times

Mary isn’t the only person in Smoke and Stack’s extended family with one foot in the Black world and the other foot in the white one.

From Salon

Related Words

• nuclear family