Terms and definitions relation relating to the family. These words were taken from a combination of textbooks used by Caribbean students in preparation for their CXC CSEC regional exams.

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Glossary of Important Terms
Vere Technical High School
Social Studies Department
Prepared by Mr. D. Gooden
Glossary of the Family
1. Adoption – the formal legal procedure of taking
someone else’s child as your own.
2. Alcoholic – a person whose illness in continual
heavy drinking.
3. Alimony – an allowance paid to a person by that
person’s spouse or former spouse for
maintenance, granted by a court upon
legal separation or divorce.
4. Arranged marriage – this is a marriage where the
father or the mother and other
relations choose the partner for a
family member.
5. Alternative lifestyle – choosing to live in a way that is
different from the rest of
society.
6. Annulment – this is a declaration by a religious or
church or legal court that a marriage is
invalid, as if it had never happened in
the first place.
7. Bigamy - the state of being married to two husbands
or two wives at the same time.
8. Bi-lineal – privileges and duties of descent which
follow both the male and the female line
of the family.
9. Breadwinner – the member(s) of the family who
provides financial support for the
family.
10. Budget – an estimate of an individual’s household
income and expenses over a specified future
period of time.
11. Cohabitation – the situation where two people live
together in a sexual relationship of
some permanence, without being
married to each other.
12. Consensual/
Common Law – the state in which a man or a
woman live together without being
legally married.
13. Conjugal – (i) pertaining to the relation of husband
and wife;
(ii) family relationship developed through
marriage.
14. Consanguine – family relationship developed
through blood line.
15. Cost of living – the price of the basic goods and
services required to maintain a
minimal standard of life – such as
food, clothes, and shelter.
16. Contraceptives – a device used to prevent
fertilization of the egg in a female,
and therefore pregnancy.
17. Courtship – this is the period in a couple’s
relationship which precedes (comes
before) their engagement and possible
marriage, or the establishment of an
agreed relationship.
18. Dating – this is a form of “courtship” consisting of
social activities done by two people with
the aim of each assessing the other’s
suitability as a partner in an intimate
relationship or as a possible spouse.
19. Desertion – willful abandonment, especially of
one’s wife or husband without consent
in violation of legal or moral
obligations.
20. Divorce – this is the legal ending of a legally
contracted marriage.
21. DNA - (deoxyribonucleic acid): a compound
composed of sugar, base and phosphate
groups located in the nucleus the cell where
where hereditary information is stored.
22. Endogamy – the practice of choosing a partner
within one’s own tribe, group etc.
23. Engagement – this is the public declaration of a
couple’s intention to marry each
other.
24. Equalitarian – this is a situation where there is equal
sharing of authority between mother
and father.
25. Exogamy – the practice of choosing a partner from
outside one’s own tribe, group etc.
26. Extended family – family with two or more
generations living in one house-
hold and function as a larger unit
It includes husband, wife,
wife, child(ren) and other
relative(s) living together. This
type of family is also called a
multi-generation family.
27. Extra marital – relationship outside the marriage.
28. Family – a group of people related by blood,
marriage, adoption, who live together
and made up of parents and child(ren).
29. Family planning – (i) the act of deliberately
choosing how many, and at
what intervals, to have
children;
(ii) the use of birth control

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methods such as condoms, to
prevent pregnancy.
30. Family tree – this is a genealogical table that shows
a person’s ancestors and his or her
own relative position in the family.
31. Friending/
Visiting Union – a situation in which the man visits
the woman at intervals. They are
not legally married. This type of
union is also called an extra-
residential union.
32. Gender – the different characteristics, roles, and
behaviours a culture or society assigns to
males and females.
33. Gene – a section of a DNA molecule that carries
instructions for the formation, functioning,
and transmission of specific traits from one
generation to another.
34. Generation gap – the issues which occur between
people of different generations
because of their varying attitudes,
beliefs and behaviours. This is
very common between parents and
childen,
35. Going steady – this is a situation where two persons
have decided that their relationship
will become exclusive, with neither
showing any interest in anyone else.
36. Hormone – a chemical produced in living cells that
is carried by the blood to organs and
tissues in distant parts of the body,
where it regulates cellular activity.
37. Household – an entire group of persons living
together and sharing living quarters.
The persons may or may not be related.
38. Incest – sexual relations between closely related
persons.
39. Kinship – family relationship.
40. Legal separation – husband and wife are legally
married but living apart from
each other through mutual and
legal agreement.
41. Marriage – the legal union of two persons, usually a
man and a woman.
42. Matriarchal – a mother (woman) dominated family
or society.
43. Matrifocal – (i) a family in which there is a lack of a
regularly present male in the role of
husband and the wife lives with the
wife’s parents.
44. Matrilocal – husband and wife live with wife’s
parents.
45. Matrilineal – family relationships ae based on the
female line or the mother.
46. Matrimony – the state of being married.
47. Monogamy – the marriage of one man to one
woman.
48. Neolocal – the situation where the husband and the
wife reside (live) by themselves.
49. Nuclear family – a situation where a married couple,
typically a male and a female,
living together with their children.
50. Patriarchal – a father (male) dominated family or
society.
51. Patrilineal – family relationships are based on the
male line or the father.
52. Personality – a consistent set of traits that a person
shows across a variety of situations.
53. Polygamy – a marriage involving either more than
one man or more than one woman.
54. Polyandry – the marriage of one woman to two or
more men.
55. Polygyny – the marriage of one man to two or more
women.
56. Pre-marital – intimate relationships before marriage.
57. Procreation – the biological process of conceiving
and bearing children.
58. Reconstituted
Family – this is a family in which some members of
former families come together to form one
unit. This type of family is also called a
reorganized, reconstructed, joined, or step-
family.
59. Same-sex union – this is a situation in which two
males or two females are in an
intimate relationship as though
they are a heterosexual (man and
woman) couple.
60. Self-esteem – this is an individual’s opinion of his
or her own worth.
61. Sibling(s) – (i) off springs of parents;
(ii) one child from a group of children
having one or both parents in
common.
62. Single-parent family – a situation where one parent
(father or mother) caring for
and living with the child(ren)
63. Socialization – the process by which a child learns
and adopts socially acceptable
behaviours in society.