close relatives
Your immediate family
Close relatives are family members connected by a short chain of descent or marriage—parents, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, first cousins.
The term often appears in legal or medical contexts where degree of relation matters: The hospital contacted his close relatives.
What counts as close varies by context; immigration law and inheritance rules draw the line differently than everyday usage.
- auntParent's sister or equivalent
- cousinAunt or uncle's child
- kissing cousinDistantly related family member
- foster parentTemporary guardian of another's child
- childPerson before puberty
daughter · father · spouse · grandparent · sibling · half sibling · niece · next of kin · mother · nephew · son · blood relative · flesh and blood · blood ties · adoptive parent · in-law · immediate family · uncle
close relativesdistant relatives
extended family · third cousins · fourth cousins · great-great-grandparents · in-laws
close relativesstrangers
People unknown to you
complete strangers · non-relatives · outsiders · acquaintances · friends