family trees

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   Diagrams or records that show how members of a family are related across generations.

   Grammar: This is the plural of 'family tree'; use 'a family tree' for one diagram.

   Patterns

   • draw a family tree
   • trace a family tree
   • a family tree going back to someone

   In history class we drew family trees going back three generations.

   Many websites help people build family trees and find distant relatives.

   Her family tree includes relatives from Ireland and Italy.

2. 2nouncountable

   The actual line of ancestors and relatives of a person or animal.

   Grammar: Often used with 'trace' or 'go back': 'The family tree goes back to 1800.'

   Patterns

   • trace your family tree
   • the family tree goes back to
   • a family tree of someone

   He spent years tracing his family tree back to the eighteenth century.

   Scientists mapped the family tree of the domestic dog.

Word forms

Common combinations

draw a family tree

The children drew a family tree for their project.

trace your family tree

She used old letters to trace her family tree.

build a family tree

Online tools make it easy to build a family tree.

the family tree goes back to

Our family tree goes back to the 1700s.

a branch of the family tree

That cousin is on a distant branch of the family tree.

Synonyms and how they differ

genealogy

More formal and often means the study or written record of ancestry, not the diagram itself.

lineage

Focuses on the direct line of descent, especially noble or important ancestry.

pedigree

Common for animals or for a person's distinguished ancestry; it sounds more official.

Word family

family tree noun

The singular form: one diagram or line of ancestry.

family history noun

The study or story of a family's past.

Commonly confused: family trees or familytrees?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “family trees”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words