nuclear family

noun
1.
a social unit composed of two parents and one or more children.
Compare extended family.
Origin
1945-50
Examples from the web for nuclear family
  • Their decline discredited social models, such as the nuclear family, which had begun to replace the old patriarchal clan system.
  • The decline of communities appears to have followed the demise of the nuclear family.
  • Biological parenthood in a nuclear family need not be the be-all and end-all of womanhood-and in fact it increasingly is not.
  • The nuclear family had long been the unit of production.
  • Moreover, single-parent and stepparent families created a more extensive kinship network than the nuclear family.
  • Simple, clean fun for the millennial nuclear family.
  • With the final addition of the ghost of the twin who died last week, the nuclear family is complete.
  • New social expectations grew up along with the urban, nuclear family.
  • After this celebration of the nuclear family comes the service itself.
  • As such, the nuclear family is the basis of empowered self-respecting life.
British Dictionary definitions for nuclear family

nuclear family

noun
1.
(sociol, anthropol) a primary social unit consisting of parents and their offspring Compare extended family
nuclear family in Medicine

nuclear family n.
A family unit consisting of a mother and father and their progeny.

nuclear family in Culture

nuclear family definition


A type of family made up only of parents and their children. (Compare extended family.)

Encyclopedia Article for nuclear family

in sociology and anthropology, a group of people who are united by ties of partnership and parenthood and consisting of a pair of adults and their socially recognized children. Typically, but not always, the adults in a nuclear family are married. Although such couples are most often a man and a woman, the definition of the nuclear family has expanded with the advent of same-sex marriage. Children in a nuclear family may be the couple's biological or adopted offspring.

Learn more about nuclear family with a free trial on Britannica.com