family
part of speech
noun (family, families); adjective (family-friendly, family car)
meaning for a pupil
1) A family is a group of people who are related, like parents and their children. tree →
2) A family can mean all your relatives: aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. tree →
3) In science, a family is a group of animals or plants that are alike: «the cat family». tree →
4) (casual) «Family» or «fam» (slang) can mean close friends: «you're like family», «wassup fam». tree →
5) (casual) Family words in talk: «mum/mom/ma», «dad/pop», «nan/nana/gran», «grandad/pop», «sis», «bro», «the folks», «the kids». tree →
6) (euphemism) «In the family way» (old) means pregnant; «family reasons» may hide a sad private matter. tree →
7) (formal) Forms and exams say «household», «relatives», «next of kin», «dependants» and «members of the household». tree →
sense in the lessons
a group of people; equal groups (families with a number of people each) or a group that shares things; in science, lions and tigers are in the cat family; phrases: «a family of four», «family tree», «family name», «family pet», «run in the family», «family size»; in casual talk «fam», «nan + 2 cousins coming», «the folks», «the whole lot of us»; in rough talk «leave my family out of it»; in the exam voice «a household of four persons», «members of the household», «per household»
examples
- There are 4 people in Jo's family. tree →
- Each family gets 3 tickets. tree →
- 5 families came to the picnic. tree →
- The family ate 12 pies. tree →
- My family has a dog and two cats. tree →
- We drew our family tree in class. tree →
- Lions and tigers belong to the cat family. tree →
- nan + 2 cousins coming, set table for all of us (we're 3), how many forks tree →
- Wassup fam, pizza tonight? tree →
- He missed school for family reasons. tree →
- Each household of four persons is allocated 3 tickets. Compute the number of tickets allocated to 5 such households. tree →
- Leave my family out of it, mate. tree →
- There the whole family settled down. tree →
note
Plural: families. A group word: families × members each = people. Trap: «a family of 4» counts the people, «5 families» counts the groups. Trap: in «nan + 2 cousins coming» add the people already at home. «household» in an exam means a family living together. «fam» may mean friends, not relatives.
In the corpora
- Knowing this helps you understand why a family's week is planned round a piece of paper on the fridge.
- These things are worrying, but they are almost never anyone's fault at home, and most families get through them.
- While a parent is unemployed the family may claim benefits and cut spending; free fun like parks and libraries helps.
- Some families pay children for extra jobs, like washing the car, but tidying your own room is just part of living together.
- Benefits are paid for by everyone's taxes as a safety net, and many families who work get some help too.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «family» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.