From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishclanclan /klæn/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 SSOa large group of families who often share the same name the Campbell clan warring clans2 FAMILY informal a very large family The whole clan will be here over Christmas.
Examples from the Corpus
clan• My own family was at once strongly nuclear and part of what can only be called a clan.• Murphy, Jamie, and the rest of the O'Brien clan will be here for Thanksgiving.• Tell him we will go upriver, to the Cheng clan in the Su Sung Tai.• The branches of the hierarchical tree hide this secret organisation with its inner clan of unknown lieutenants possessing mythical powers.• Most people want many sons because they carry on the family line and that means our clan can claim more land.• War and isolation have proved an ideal breeding ground for corruption and feuding between rival political clans.• Several clans made up a tribe, although there appears to have been no central leadership except in times of war.• The scullions sweated and ducked at the spits and bake-ovens built around the exercise ground for the clan to feast.Origin clan (1400-1500) Scottish Gaelic clann “family, race, clan”, from Old Irish cland “new growth on a plant, offspring”, from Latin planta; → PLANT1 