Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The term extended family has several distinct meanings; a family that includes in one household near relatives in addition to a nuclear family. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer to a family unit in which several generations live together within a single household. In some cultures the term is used synonymously with consanguineous family.