Family /(?)/

pl. Families

1. The collective body of persons who live in one house, and under one head or manager; a household, including parents, children, and servants, and, as the case may be, lodgers or boarders.
2. The group comprising a husband and wife and their dependent children, constituting a fundamental unit in the organization of society.

   The welfare of the family underlies the welfare of society.

3. Those who descend from one common progenitor; a tribe, clan, or race; kindred; house; as, the human family; the family of Abraham; the father of a family.

   Go ! and pretend your family is young.

4. Course of descent; genealogy; line of ancestors; lineage.
5. Honorable descent; noble or respectable stock; as, a man of family.
6. A group of kindred or closely related individuals; as, a family of languages; a family of States; the chlorine family.
7. A group of organisms, either animal or vegetable, related by certain points of resemblance in structure or development, more comprehensive than a genus, because it is usually based on fewer or less pronounced points of likeness. In Zoology a family is less comprehesive than an order; in botany it is often considered the same thing as an order. (Biol.)