family unit

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Also see: unit

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
family/ˈfaməli/

▶noun (pl. families)

• 1 [treated as sing. or pl.] a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit.

  ■ a group of people related by blood or marriage.

  ■ the children of a person or couple.

• 2 all the descendants of a common ancestor.

• 3 a group of related things.

  ■ Biology a principal taxonomic category ranking above genus and below order.

  ■ all the languages ultimately derived from a particular early language, regarded as a group.

▶adjective suitable for children as well as adults.

– phrases
in the family way informal pregnant.

– derivatives
familial /fəˈmɪljəl/ adjective.

– origin ME: from L. familia ‘household servants, family’, from famulus ‘servant’.