nuclear family

noun

: a family group that consists only of parents and children

Examples of nuclear family in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The ensemble includes a nuclear family, group of old friends, an unlikely couple, and Season 1’s Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) — among many more. Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 17 Feb. 2025 In the postwar period, right after the end of the Second World War, there was a culture clash between establishment lifestyle–the man in a gray flannel suit who works in a corporate job and has a conventional kind of nuclear family and white-picket-fence house—and the counterculture. Vittoria Elliott, WIRED, 21 Jan. 2025 And when those divisions occur within nuclear families, the cracks run deep. Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Feb. 2025 One male and one female form a group with their children, a nuclear family, which can occasionally incorporate a third generation as well. Jonathan Granoff, Newsweek, 29 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for nuclear family

Word History

First Known Use

1924, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of nuclear family was in 1924

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Cite this Entry

“Nuclear family.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuclear%20family. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.

Kids Definition

nuclear family

noun
: a family group that consists only of father, mother, and children

Medical Definition

nuclear family

noun
: a family group that consists only of father, mother, and children see extended family

More from Merriam-Webster on nuclear family

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