CLAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does clan mean? 

• CLAN (noun)
  The noun CLAN has 1 sense:

1. group of people related by blood or marriage

  Familiarity information: CLAN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Group of people related by blood or marriage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

clan; kin; kin group; kindred; kinship group; tribe

Hypernyms ("clan" is a kind of...):

social group (people sharing some social relation)

Meronyms (members of "clan"):

relation; relative (a person related by blood or marriage)

clan member; clansman; clanswoman (a member of a clan)

tribesman (someone who lives in a tribe)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "clan"):

mishpachah; mishpocha ((Yiddish) the entire family network of relatives by blood or marriage (and sometimes close friends))

family; family unit (primary social group; parents and children)

folks (your parents)

family tree; genealogy (successive generations of kin)

totem (a clan or tribe identified by their kinship to a common totemic object)

Tribes of Israel; Twelve Tribes of Israel (twelve kin groups of ancient Israel each traditionally descended from one of the twelve sons of Jacob)

 Context examples 

At his command, "Bring in the clan," Andy departed to go the round of the rooms for the lodgers.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And the Hornbeams and the Willie Voltaires and a whole clan named Blackbuck who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

His voice was solemn as if the memory of that sudden extinction of a clan still haunted him. For a moment I suspected that he was pulling my leg but a glance at him convinced me otherwise.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

The Carraways are something of a clan and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)