nuclear family

Definition of nuclear family

: a family group that consists only of parents and children

Examples of nuclear family in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web As life spans increase, so will the proportion of time one spends outside the nuclear family, which means that, at some point, for most Americans, the alternative to different ways of being together will be being alone. — Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 28 June 2021 Government goals to shutter homes for children in favor of foster care or keeping children within the nuclear family, where appropriate, hadn’t seen notable progress until the pandemic arrived, says Ms. Luna of RELAF. — Whitney Eulich, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 June 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'nuclear family.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Statistics for nuclear family

Last Updated

14 Jul 2021

Look-up Popularity

Top 2% of words

Cite this Entry

“Nuclear family.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuclear%20family. Accessed 19 Jul. 2021.

Style: MLA

MLA