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Nuance-ish question, there was an event for an anime with their voice actors answering questions (all 6 present were the voice actors for parents/children in the Nakamura, Watanabe and Nakashima families) where this question was asked:

「中村家・渡辺家・中島家の中で、入ってみたい家庭は？」

'Between the Nakamura, Watanabe, and Nakashima households, which household would you want to enter?'

I'd like to ask if 家庭 here refers specifically to the family we see in question, or to entire clan. To elaborate, the series has, for example, an entire Nakashima clan (中島一族) in the background, but mostly concentrate on one family made up of a father, mother, and two daughters. Does the question refer to entering the Nakashima clan, or entering the Nakashima family that's concentrated on? Or could it be either? I'd like to understand the nuances/usage behind the word 家庭.

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家庭 usually refers to the smallest social unit, typically made up of parents and their children who live together. This word on its own never refers to a larger group of families.

This question （入ってみたい家庭は？） sounds like a very casual what-if question to me, and translating this as "entering XX clan/lineage" is probably too grandiose, even when 一族 plays an important role in the anime.

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  • Ahh, okay thank you! To increase my knowledge of the word further, you said it usually refers to the smallest social unit. So, say for example, if a family had divorced parents, would they still be referred to as a 家庭 including both parents, or would the word 家庭 only apply to the parent who stayed with the children or just no longer apply at all?
    – Hedgehog
    Aug 17, 2015 at 6:42
  • 家庭 is more like home, the place where two or more people live harmoniously. A person who is living alone is usually considered as a person without 家庭. If someone had divorced and parted with other family members, that would be 家庭を失う.
    – naruto
    Aug 17, 2015 at 8:46

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