familial
fa·mil·ial/fəˈmɪljəl/adjective
familial is spelled F-A-M-I-L-I-A-L: 8 letters and 3 syllables (fa·mil·ial). It appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, familial means “Of or pertaining to a human family” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in familial?
| Letters | 8: F-A-M-I-L-I-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: fa·mil·ial |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words; the 21,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is familial?
Familial appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,798th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce familial?
- US /fəˈmɪljəl/
Familial has 3 syllables, split fa·mil·ial in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-familial.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does familial mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of or pertaining to a human family.
Mark had to leave work due to familial obligations.
- 2
Pertaining to a taxon at the rank of family.
Having milky latex is a familial characteristic of Apocynaceae.
- 3
Of or pertaining to any grouping of things referred to as a family.
"Grandfather", "mother", and "brother" are some English familial terms.
- 4
Inherited.
fatal familial insomnia
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Familial in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of or pertaining to a human family:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does familial come from?
From French familial (“relating to a family; familial”), from Latin familia (“family (in the sense of the slaves working for a household); household”) (from famulus (“servant; slave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-m-eló-, from *dʰeh₁- (“to do, place, put”)) + French -al (adjective-forming suffix) (from Latin -ālis, from Proto-Indo-European *-li-). By surface analysis, family + -al. Piecewise doublet of familiar.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).