When I think of the word family, my daughter, my mother, and my sister come to mind. Family is defined in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as "a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head." In our day and age however, most families do not all live under one roof. Family members can be spread worldwide. In my case, those "under my roof" consist of my mother, my daughter, and myself. .
From the Latin word familia, family means "household (including servants as well as kin of the householder)." Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles would be considered relatives. A relative is defined as "a person connected with another by blood." Most people would consider their relatives their family. Americans tend to encompass brothers and sisters as well as cousins and grandparents in the term family. People often misunderstand the true meaning of family. My family is those immediate family members living under the same roof.
Another definition of family is "a group of related plants or animals forming a category ranking above a genus and below an order and usually comprising several to many genera." This supports the plant kingdom including all living and extinct plants. This definition also includes the animal kingdom and its many families. Studying plant and animal kingdoms is science class, we learn that these families are so complex that they are larger than any human family imaginable. For example, the family of the dog stretches back and has roots to the wolf. The term kingdom means "one of the three primary divisions into which natural objects are commonly classified.".
Yet another definition of family is "a unit of a crime syndicate (as the Mafia) operating within a geographical area." This definition has been made famous by such movies as The Godfather, and shows such as The Sopranos. Mafia families have dated back as far as the 1800's. According to Merriam-Webster, the Mafia is from Italian dialect meaning "a secret criminal society of Sicily or Italy.
