Gens

n.	1.	(Rom. Hist.) A clan or family connection, embracing several families of the same stock, who had a common name and certain common religious rites; a subdivision of the Roman curia or tribe.
	2.	(Ethnol.) A minor subdivision of a tribe, among American aborigines. It includes those who have a common descent, and bear the same totem.

Noun

1.

gens - family based on male descent; "he had no sons and there was no one to carry on his name" Synonyms: name

GENS. A word used by the Romans to represent race and nation. 1 Tho. Co. Litt. 259, n. 13. In the French law, it is used to signify people or nations, as Droit des Gens, the law of nations.

animal kingdom, ashram, blood, body, breed, brood, caste, clan, class, colony, commonwealth, commune, community, deme, economic class, endogamous group, extended family, family, folk, house, kind, kinship group, line, lineage, matriclan, moiety, nation, nuclear family, order, patriclan, people, phratria, phratry, phyle, plant kingdom, race, sept, settlement, social class, society, species, stem, stirps, stock, strain, subcaste, totem, tribe