Collins English-English Dictionary

family ['fæmɪlɪ]

1. 1. n a primary social group consisting of parents and their offspring, the principal function of which is provision for its members

2. 2. n (as modifier)

   family quarrels

   a family unit

3. 3. n one's wife or husband and one's children

4. 4. n one's children, as distinguished from one's husband or wife

5. 5. n a group of persons related by blood; a group descended from a common ancestor - Compare extended family

6. 6. n all the persons living together in one household

7. 7. n any group of related things or beings, esp when scientifically categorized

8. 8. n [biology] any of the taxonomic groups into which an order is divided and which contains one or more genera. Felidae (cat family) and Canidae (dog family) are two families of the order Carnivora

9. 9. n [ecology] a group of organisms of the same species living together in a community

10. 10. n a group of historically related languages assumed to derive from one original language

11. 11. n [chiefly US] an independent local group of the Mafia

12. 12. n [maths] a group of curves or surfaces whose equations differ from a given equation only in the values assigned to one or more constants in each curve

    a family of concentric circles

13. 13. n [physics] the isotopes, collectively, that comprise a radioactive series

14. 14. n [Etymology] C15: from Latin familia a household, servants of the house, from famulus servant