immediate family — close relatives
collocationB1IELTS 5+neutralcommon
Your immediate family includes your closest relatives, like your parents, children, brothers, and sisters, but not your aunts, uncles, or cousins.
Say it like a native
Textbook Only one's closest blood relations may attend.
Native Only immediate family can come.
'Immediate family' is the standard set phrase. 'Closest blood relations' is clunky.
Pattern: immediate family (noun phrase); someone's immediate family
In use
- Only my immediate family came to the small wedding ceremony.family
- In my culture, people are very close to their immediate family, and we usually live together or visit each other often.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ Only the immediate families are invited.
✓ Only immediate family are invited.
'Immediate family' is collective/uncountable here — no plural 'families' for one person's relatives.
Common collocations
immediate family— only, members of, close to, extended family
Don't confuse it
Contrast with 'extended family', which includes aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.