Lexicon
Key vocabulary
- Orphanage (n.) – a residential institution for the care and education of orphans
- Orphan (n.) – a child whose parents are dead
- Foster home (n.) – a household in which care is provided to a child who has been orphaned or removed from the home of his or her natural parents
- Adoption (n.) – is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person’s biological or legal parent or parents.
- Adoptive mother/father – someone who provides a permanent home to a child or children through a legal process.
- Ancestor (n.) – a person, typically one more remote than a grandparent
- Descendant (n.) – a person who is descended from a particular ancestor
- Birth mother (n.) – a woman who has given birth to a child
- Blood relative (n.) – a person related to another by birth rather than by marriage
- Bride (n.) – a woman on her wedding day
- Groom (n.) – a man on his wedding day
- Eligible (adj.) – (of a person) desirable or suitable as a partner in marriage
- Engaged (adj.) – having formally agreed to marry
- Extended family (n.) – a family that extends beyond the nuclear family, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives, who all live nearby or in one household
- Nuclear family (n.) – a couple and their dependent children, regarded as a basic social unit
- Immediate family (n.) – a defined group of relations, used in rules or laws to determine which members of a person’s family are affected by those rules
- Family tree (n.) – a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure
- Foster parents (n.) -people who officially take a child into their family for a period of time, without becoming the child’s legal parents
- Grown-up (n.) – an adult
- Hereditary (n.) – (of a characteristic or disease) determined by genetic factors and therefore able to be passed on from parents to their offspring or descendants
- Heir (n.) – a person legally entitled to the property or rank of another on that person’s death
- Heiress (n.) – a woman who is legally entitled to the property or rank of another on that person’s death
- In-laws (n.) – is someone who is a relative because of marriage, like your husband’s sister or your wife’s father. You can refer to your spouse’s entire family as your in-laws
- Monogamy (n.) – the practice or state of being married to one person at a time
- Polygamy (n.) – the practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time
- Nurture (v.) – care for and encourage the growth or development of
- Offspring (n.) – a person’s child or children
- Surrogate mother (n.) – a woman who bears a child on behalf of another woman
Expression
- Wage-earner/breadwinner – one whose earnings are the primary source of support for their dependents
- Black sheep – a member of a family or group who is regarded as a disgrace to them
- (Born) out of wedlock – born of married (or unmarried) parents
- Up and duff – unplanned pregnancy
- Boys will be boys – used to express the view that mischievous or childish behavior is typical of boys or young men and should not cause surprise when it occurs
- Like a kid in a candy store – to be so excited about one’s surroundings that one acts in a childlike or silly way
- Sleep like a baby – to experience a very deep and restful sleep
- Pop the question – propose marriage
- Settle down – to begin to live a quiet and steady life by getting a regular job, getting married, etc.
- (Born) with a silver spoon in his mouth – be born into a wealthy family of high social standing