Here are the most common vocabulary relating to the topic ‘Family’. These words are collected from different sources and can be used in both productive sections of IELTS. They can also help you better understand the Reading section of the test.
- nurture (verb) – to take care of, feed, and protect someone or something, especially young children or plants, and help him, her, or it to develop.
– She wants to stay at home and nurture her children. - sibling (noun) – a brother or sister.
– I have four siblings: three brothers and a sister.
– There was great sibling rivalry (= competition) between Peter and his brother. - adolescence (noun) – the period of time in a person’s life when they are developing into an adult.
– She had a troubled adolescence.
– Developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence. - nuclear family (noun) – a family consisting of two parents and their children, but not including aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.
– We average fewer than two children per nuclear family.
– A strong feature is that the book includes case studies of extended family systems as well as nuclear family systems. - extended family (noun) – a family unit that includes grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, and uncles, etc. in addition to parents and children.
– The extended family structure is no longer as strong as it once was.
– One wonders about the role of extended family contact in this kind of tradition. - breadwinner (noun) – the member of a family who earns the money that the family needs.
– Men are often expected to be the breadwinner in a family.
– He is 34, a father of three, and the sole breadwinner of the family. - marital status (noun) – the fact of someone being married or not.
– Could I ask you about your marital status?
– Your change in marital status should have no effect on your career. - an only child (noun) – a child who has no sisters or brothers.
– She was then brought up with extreme care by her patients as their only child.
– Despite being an only child, she described her parents as cold and distant. - divorced (adj) – married in the past but not now married.
– He’s divorced and doesn’t seem to have a job or much money.
– They got divorced after only six months of marriage. - support (verb) – to give a person the money they need in order to buy food and clothes and pay for somewhere to live.
– He has a wife and four children to support.
– She supports her family by teaching evening classes. - adopt (verb) – to legally take another person’s child into your own family and take care of him or her as your own child.
– They’ve adopted a baby girl.
– They have no children of their own, but they’re hoping to adopt. - ancestor (noun) – a person related to you who lived a long time ago
– There were portraits of his ancestors on the walls of the room.
– My ancestors all came from the same part of Chine. - descendant (noun) – a person who is related to you and who lives after you, such as your child or grandchild.
– They claim to be descendants of a French duke.
– We owe it to our descendants (= people younger than us who will live after we have died) to leave them a clean world to live in. - foster (verb) – to take care of a child, usually for a limited time, without being the child’s legal parent.
– Would you consider fostering (a child)?
– My parents have fostered lots of children over the years. - dependant (noun) – someone who depends on you for financial support, such as a child or family member who does not work.
– I couldn’t believe it when I heard how many dependants he’s got.
– My pension will provide for my dependants. - alimony (noun) – a regular amount of money that a court of law orders a person to pay to their previous wife or husband after a divorce.
– The husband would be forced to pay his wife alimony for the rest of his life.
– His alimony amounts to around one thousand dollars a month.
