A word family is a group of words that share a common base or root word, along with similar meanings and grammatical forms. For example, the word family for the root word “play” includes words like playing, played, player, and playful. These words are connected because they all relate to the concept of play. Word families help in understanding language patterns and expanding vocabulary. By learning one word in a family, you can often infer the meanings of other related words. This makes it easier to read and write, as you can recognize and use variations of a word in different contexts.