clan

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A traditional social unit in the Scottish Highlands, consisting of a number of families claiming a common ancestor and following the same hereditary chieftain.
2. n. A division of a tribe tracing descent from a common ancestor.
3. n. A large group of relatives, friends, or associates.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A race; a family; a tribe; an association of persons under a chieftain; especially, such a family or tribe among the Highlanders of Scotland. The clan is a tribal form of social and political organization based upon kinship of the members. The chief features of the system are the leadership of a chief, regarded as representing a common ancestor, and the possession of land partly undivided as the common domain of the clan, and partly divided as the separate property of its members and their heirs, the clan being the heir of a member who dies leaving no son. It prevailed in early times in Germany and Ireland, and until recently in Scotland, and to some extent in other countries. Thus, among the Highlanders a clan consisted of the common descendants of the same progenitor, under the patriarchal control of a chief, who represented the common ancestor, and who was revered and served by the clansmen with the blind devotion of children. The clans did not, however, acknowledge the principle of primogeniture, often raising to the chiefship a brother or an uncle of a deceased chief. The name of the clan was generally that of the original progenitor with the prefix Mac (son). There are few traces of this institution now remaining.
2. n. Figuratively, a clique, sect, set, society, or body of persons closely united by some common interest or pursuit, and supposed to have a spirit of exclusiveness toward others.
3. n. Synonyms Tribe, Race, etc. See people.
4. n. A social unit in a tribe in which descent is reckoned in the maternal line; a group of people supposed to be descended from a common ancestor, descent being reckoned in the female line. In this sense it is opposed to gens, the social unit in a tribe in which descent is reckoned in the paternal line.

Wiktionary

1. n. anthropology A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief.
2. n. A traditional social group of families in the Scottish Highlands having a common hereditary chieftain
3. n. Any association of people behaving clannishly.
4. n. video games A group of players who habitually play on the same team in multiplayer games.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A tribe or collection of families, united under a chieftain, regarded as having the same common ancestor, and bearing the same surname.
2. n. A clique; a sect, society, or body of persons; esp., a body of persons united by some common interest or pursuit; -- sometimes used contemptuously.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. group of people related by blood or marriage