different between family vs litter

See Wiktionary:Families for a guide to language families within Wiktionary

English

Etymology

From Early Modern English familie (not in Middle English), from Latin familia (“the servants in a household, domestics collectively”), from famulus (“servant”) or famula (“female servant”), from Old Latin famul, of obscure origin. Perhaps derived from or cognate to Oscan famel (“servant”). Doublet of familia. Displaced native Old English h?red.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fæm(?)li/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fæm(?)li/, /?fæm?li/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?f?m(?)li/
• Hyphenation: fa?mi?ly, fam?ily

Noun

family (countable and uncountable, plural families)

1. (countable) A group of people who are closely related to one another (by blood, marriage or adoption); kin; for example, a set of parents and their children; an immediate family.
2. (countable) An extended family; a group of people who are related to one another by blood or marriage.
   • 1915, William T. Groves, A History and Genealogy of the Groves Family in America
3. (countable) Synonym of family member (an individual who belongs to one's family).

4. (countable) A (close-knit) group of people related by blood, friendship, marriage, law, or custom, especially if they live or work together.

5. (uncountable, taxonomy) lineage, especially an honorable one
   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch 2:

     Indeed, he married her for love. A whisper still goes about that she had not even 'family'; howbeit, Sir Leicester had so much family that perhaps he had enough and could dispense with any more.

6. (countable, biology, taxonomy) A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below order and above genus; a taxon at that rank.

   Synonym: familia

7. (countable) Any group or aggregation of things classed together as kindred or related from possessing in common characteristics which distinguish them from other things of the same order.
   • 2010, Gary Shelly, Jennifer Campbell, Ollie Rivers, Microsoft Expression Web 3: Complete (page 262)

     When creating a font family, first decide whether to use all serif or all sans-serif fonts, then choose two or three fonts of that type […]

8. (set theory, countable) A collection of sets, especially of subsets of a given set.

9. (countable, music) A group of instruments having the same basic method of tone production.

10. (countable, linguistics) A group of languages believed to have descended from the same ancestral language.

11. Used attributively.

Usage notes

• In some dialects, family is used as a plural (only) noun.

Synonyms

• (relatives): flesh and blood, kin, kinfolk
• (class): Thesaurus:class

Hyponyms

• (relatives): nuclear family, immediate family, extended family
• (computing): C family

Descendants

• Jamaican Creole: faambli, fambili
• Tok Pisin: famili
• ? Chuukese: famini
• ? Malay: famili
• ? Maori: wh?mere

Translations

Adjective

family (not comparable)

1. Suitable for children and adults.

2. Conservative, traditional.

3. (slang) Homosexual.

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• Category:Family
• (taxonomy, rank):

• domain
• kingdom
• phylum/division
• class
• order
• superfamily
• family
  • subfamily, tribe
• genus
• species

Further reading

• family on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Family (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Family of sets on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Family (biology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• family at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “family”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).
• “family” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• family in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "family" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 1.
• family in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• family in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

From French litière, from lit (“bed”), from Latin lectus; confer Ancient Greek ??????? (léktron). Had the sense ‘bed’ in very early English, but then came to mean ‘portable couch’, ‘bedding’, ‘strewn rushes (for animals)’, etc.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l?t?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l?t?/, [?l???]
• Rhymes: -?t?(r)
• Homophone: lidder (US)

Noun

litter (countable and uncountable, plural litters)

1. (countable) A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.
2. (collective, countable) The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.
3. (uncountable) Material used as bedding for animals.

4. (uncountable) Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
   • 1730, Jonathan Swift, s:The Lady's Dressing Room

     Strephon [...] / Stole in, and took a strict survey / Of all the litter as it lay.
5. (uncountable) Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray

6. (uncountable) Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
7. A covering of straw for plants.

Synonyms

• (platform designed to carry a person or a load): palanquin, sedan chair, stretcher, cacolet
• (items discarded on the ground): waste, rubbish, garbage (US), trash (US), junk

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

litter (third-person singular simple present litters, present participle littering, simple past and past participle littered)

1. (intransitive) To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).

2. (transitive) To scatter carelessly about.
3. (transitive) To strew (a place) with scattered articles.
4. (transitive) To give birth to, used of animals.
5. (intransitive) To produce a litter of young.
6. (transitive) To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
   • 1693, John Hacket, Scrinia reserata: a Memorial offered to the great Deservings of John Williams

     Tell them how they litter their jades.

   • For his ease, well litter'd was the floor.

7. (intransitive) To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
   • 1634, William Habington, Castara

     The inn where he and his horse litter'd.

Derived terms

• litterer

Translations

Anagrams

• retilt, tilter, titler

Norman

Etymology

From Old French luitier, loitier, luiter (compare French lutter), from Vulgar Latin luct?re, from Latin luctor, luct?r? (“struggle, wrestle, fight”).

Verb

litter

1. (Jersey) to wrestle

Derived terms

• litteux (“wrestler”)