nuclear family
"nuclear-family" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nuclear family” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A family unit consisting of two parents (traditionally a mother and a father) and their children.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nuclear family |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nuclear family” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nuclear family is 14 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A family unit consisting of two parents (traditionally a mother and a father) and their children.".
nuclear family has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From nuclear + family. The correct English form is nuclear family, spelled N-U-C-L-E-A-R- -F-A-M-I-L-Y.
Definition
- 1A family unit consisting of two parents (traditionally a mother and a father) and their children.
Etymology
From nuclear + family.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “nuclear family”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-U-C-L-E-A-R- -F-A-M-I-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.