To save this word, you’ll need to log in. The word has shifted its meaning considerably since it family pie our language, currently contains many different senses, and in at least one of these senses may signify different things to different people.

In modern use family may refer to one of a number of different groups of people or things collectively, such as chemical compounds, related languages, plants and animals, and people who may or may not share ancestry. Family is often encountered in legal use, but even within the jargon of the law it is not restricted to a single meaning. Rawls: a widow with two daughters and a son, my only playmate. There were a lot of families at the circus.