family line
5
3.2
- noun
:
línea familiar
- Do you want to be a man without a family line?
- carry on the family line
- continue the family line
- family line ends
It changes people's whole family line.
- It changes people's whole family line.
- You know, the Kennedys, the Cuomo's, they enable each other across generations and across, you know, family, nuclear family lines.
- And so I, I continue to, to watch in this family line, just this constant endeavor.
- I feel like I would love that just to like keep the name going and like have that massive like family line in hopefully WWE.
Examples
-
The island has been in the same family line since it was given to them by King Charles I in 1639.
Fiction book (1997) -
Ever since I was a little boy, I remember hearing about the family line.
Fiction book (1994) -
From being a child, I can remember being told about the family line.
-
You felt it was no longer your responsibility to carry on the family line.
-
Someone with a long, well-established family line.
Fiction book (1998) -
Apparently, the Reed family line came to a rather unceremonious end.
-
And so it falls to me to steer the family line as a playwright.
-
My mother's murder had meant the end of our family line in Bolivar County, going back to the 1840s.
Fiction book (2002) -
Ultimately, his infertility led to the extinction of the Habsburg family line.
Blog text (14) -
She felt a deep sense of pride in her family line, tracing back generations.
Synonyms
639
4.1
Family history passed down from your ancestors
198
5.6
A series of related people or events over time
57
4.1
The family you come from over many generations
57
4.8
A family line of people or animals related by birth
51
4.6
The family a person comes from, for example parents or grandparents
46
5.5
A list of family members who came before you
14
5.3
A record of a person or family's ancestors that shows an important background
7
5.3
Who a person's mother and father are and their family background
1
3.8
The people in a family who are related by blood across generations
How Close
5
3.2
1
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a group of people descended from a common ancestor' is directly derivable from combining 'family' (people related by blood/marriage) with 'line' (a sequence or lineage). This is a straightforward noun-noun composition following regular English patterns and has clear parallels in many other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words should understand it.
Etymology
The noun family line comes from a simple picture: the words family and line make you imagine people standing one after another, showing who comes from whom. So, it means 'a group of people who come from the same ancestor'.