Meaning & use
blended family
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Meaning
nouncountable
A household formed when two adults, each with children from earlier relationships, join together and raise the children as one family.
Grammar: Countable: they live in a blended family; the plural is blended families.
Patterns
- live in a blended family
- grow up in a blended family
Her new husband has two sons, so they are a blended family of six.
Growing up in a blended family taught Eli to share space and attention.
Schools now send letters addressed to all the parents in a blended family.
Word forms
| plural | blended families |
|---|
Common combinations
- grow up in a blended family
- He grew up in a blended family with three step-siblings.
- form a blended family
- They formed a blended family after the wedding.
- blended family dynamics
- The counselor discussed blended family dynamics.
- happy blended family
- They are a happy blended family.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stepfamily
- It focuses on the step relationships, while blended family stresses the effort of combining households.
- reconstituted family
- It is a formal or academic term that sounds less warm than blended family.
- patchwork family
- It is an informal image of different parts sewn together, a little more playful than blended family.
Opposites
Word family
- blend verb
- to mix together
- stepchild noun
- a child of one's spouse from an earlier relationship
- step-sibling noun
- a child of one's stepparent
- stepparent noun
- a parent by marriage
Commonly confused: blended family or extended family?
blended family vs extended family
Extended family means relatives like grandparents and cousins, not two households joining together.
Practice
Luis and Carla each had children before marrying, and now they all live together. This is a ___.
Choose one answer.
A blended family joins two households with children from earlier relationships. A nuclear family is only parents and their shared children, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “blended family”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.