family tree

plural family trees

1. genealogyA diagrammatic representation of a pedigree, illustrating the connections between a person's ancestors, offspring and other relatives.

   Synonyms: stemma

2. collectiveThe totality of someone's ancestors and offspring.

   As the years have passed, Barack Obama's family tree has grown.

   2010, Amelie von Zumbusch, Barack Obama's Family Tree: Roots of Achievement, →ISBN, page 22

   4 more examples

   Heredity and environment are not the absolute arbiters of what will be, as Jesus' genealogy details in the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel. As Gardner Taylor, an African-American preacher in Brooklyn, noted, Rahab the prostitute is in the family tree of Jesus Christ.

   1997, Doug Adams, The Prostitute in the Family Tree: Discovering Humor and Irony in the Bible, →ISBN, page 3

   We're from the family tree of old school hip-hop / Kick off your shoes and relax your socks

   1998, “Intergalactic”, performed by Beastie Boys

   It's never been discussed whether or not there is mental illness in my family tree but I know a great aunt committed suicide years before using paracetamol.

   2011, Suzannah Knight, Black Magic, →ISBN, page 18

   Brigitte Macron has not spoken publicly on the false gender claims since 2022, when she told French radio, RTL, the allegations were an “impossible” attack on her parents’ family tree.

   2025 October 27, Angelique Chrisafis, “Ten people go on trial in Paris for online harassment of Brigitte Macron”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

3. human sciencesA model or diagram showing the relationships and evolution of specified languages over time.
4. agricultureA grafting technique involving the joining of different varieties of plants onto a single tree or plant.
5. computerA data structure that organizes resources or machines in a distributed system, consisting of nodes connected by edges, in which each node may also contain a subnode.