polyfamily

P3O1L1Y4F4A1M3I1L1Y4

noun

A group of people in a polyamorous relationship, who consider each other as family.

Scrabble 23

Meanings

nounpolyfamily (plural polyfamilies)

plural polyfamilies

  1. A group of people in a polyamorous relationship, who consider each other as family.

    Group marriage must be contrasted with polyfamilies, which is similar to group marriage but where some members may not considered themselves married to all other members.

    2008, Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, page 13
    1 more example

    Interestingly, despite the percentages above illustrating that many polyfamilies in the Polyamory Survey had children or wanted children, only approximately 30 percent of survey respondents had told their children about their poly relationships or their desire to be in one...

    2010, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Border Sexualities, Border Families in Schools, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 172
  2. Such a group, together with children of members of the group.

    When a child is born into a polyfamily, he or she has legal parents and nonlegal parents.

    2008, Brette Sember, Unmarried with Children: The Complete Guide for Unmarried Families, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN
    1 more example

    Some adults in the research who had grown up in polyfamilies and who had learned to lie at school believed that the positives they had gained from being raised in such closeted families far outweighed any negatives such as lying.

    2010, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Polyfamilies Go to School, chapter 18 of Understanding Non-Monogamies, ed. Meg Barker, Darren Langdridge; Routledge, page 185

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

polyfamily. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polyfamily

MLA

“polyfamily.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polyfamily. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “polyfamily,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polyfamily.

Source: polyfamily on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.