Family

Family can be defined as a social unit that consists of the spouse and the children the spouses have or adopt together and that live together.http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuclear+family Family can also extend to others such as grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. A broader traditional definition is the common descendants of a certain person. However, a modern family has a larger definition. It can consist of the same basic unit whether living together or not. Family can include the children of just one of the couple or children of both the couple living with them or not. It can even be defined as a group of people who are not related but have common interests and goals and live together.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/family

The traditional, or nuclear family, now counts for only about 25 percent of the United States population. The highest percentage for the nuclear family was in the 1960s when it was about 45 percent. Many Americans are waiting to get married until they are older and some do not marry at all deciding instead to live together. Single parent families are growing at a large rate.http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2001/06/07/family_values

The word family comes from the Latin word familia, which means household. The word was used as long ago as 1400 and encompassed both relatives and servants of a household. By 1545, the word was used in England for those connected by blood whether they lived in the same household or not.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/family

Today, the word family can also be used in other ways such as “in the family way” meaning a woman is pregnant. It can also be used as an adjective as in family car or family amusement park.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/family