In the context of family, the term "immediate" refers to member of the family connected by birth, adoption, marriage, civil partnership, or cohabitation.
Is t here a term that refers to the rest of the family?
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Sign up to join this communityIn the context of family, the term "immediate" refers to member of the family connected by birth, adoption, marriage, civil partnership, or cohabitation.
Is t here a term that refers to the rest of the family?
Extended family is the usual term covering in-laws, cousins, and so forth.
Extended
and not Distant
. Distant
is more concerned with the actual nitty-gritty constituents and dynamic of a relationship not what the hierarchical relationship actually is - to be honest, you could have a Distant, immediate brother
.
May 22, 2013 at 10:11
I'd suggest you probably want distant:-
- Far apart in relationship: a distant cousin.
The opposite of immediate relatives, to me, would be remote relatives. And "the word that describes family" would be, well, family.
I would also say distant. I've never actually heard remote being used to refer to relatives who's ties to you are distant / far-apart.
The word "family"--in my experience--is only utilized with "immediate", whereas when using "remote" or "distant" I'd switch to "relative" or "relatives."
I think I like “external” as my opposite of immediate family. Immediate are those in my family reunion photos, those I see or discuss or think about on a regular basis. Everyone else is outside of my window of immediate or typically secondary importance. Therefore they are externally important family. That works yes?