What is a family in taxonomy?

Kingdoms are broken down into phyla, which are broken down into classes, which are broken down into orders.

Each order is made up of several families.

Here's an example:

Humans are in the Kingdom Animalia.

They are in the Phylum Chordata.

They are in the Subphylum Vertebrata.

They are in the Class Mammalia.

They are in the Order Primates.

And they are in the Family Homidae of the Order Primates.

The levels of classification in taxonomy are:

Kingdom

Phylum

Class

Order

Family

Genus

Species

These can be memorized using the mnemonic phrase: King Phillip Came Over From Great Spain.