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I Wonder what do you call a family which is most of the time rich and all its members are living a good life and have whatever they need? The idiom/expression/set phrase or even the adjective in my question not only should encapsulate the concept of being wealthy, but also should indicate that the person is living in comfort and luxury and has all the needed facilities at hand. I wonder what would you use to fill in the black below:

— He has grown up in a ................. family?

I used to think that a "prosperous family" is my needed concept, but reading the meaning of this word I decided to ask a new question about it, while it doesn't convey anything about "comfort".

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  • Though it doesn't fit the structure of your example sentence, a common phrase to express the same idea would be: "He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth." – Luck Jul 2 '19 at 16:33
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Many people will probably think they mean exactly the same thing, but personally I think adjectival well-to-do best carries the specific allusion to OP's request for a terms that includes "comfort and luxury, with all needed facilities at hand". To my mind, the similar term well-off is much more tightly focused on actual wealth.

It's worth citing this definition from Collins...

well-to-do
- showing signs of being successful; rich

(They also include comfortable in their list of synonyms, which I think is relevant.)

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  • In the UK at least, we also use several expressions for wealth: "comfortably-off" (financially comfortable), "better-off" (than someone specific, or than people in general) and "well-off". – jonathanjo Jul 2 '19 at 15:50
  • @jonathanjo: I don't know why that Collins entry identifies it as "American English" - it's more reminiscent of Victorian England to me (but bearing its years well; I don't find it particularly "dated", just a tad "hifalutin"). I just checked the full OED, which only refers to a trivial US/UK distinction in pronunciation (their do being uncharacteristically more "diphthongy" than ours - somewhat at odds with their preference for doo over dew). – FumbleFingers Jul 2 '19 at 16:03
  • Perfect. 👌🏻 Thank you very much FF. Actually I knew the term, just sometimes, I think providing some hints might deviate the posters' minds. However, you hit the nail on the head. – A-friend Jul 2 '19 at 17:55
  • @A-friend: I'm not sure what you mean about "providing some hints". Do you mean spell out the progressive shift from They live well (have all the comforts of life) to They're rich (have lots of money), with They're well-to-do / well-off sitting somewhere between those two identifiably different meanings? – FumbleFingers Jul 3 '19 at 11:44
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    @A-friend: Oh - in case you didn't know it, you might be interested in He does all right. Colloquial expression meaning He's [relatively] well-paid (or maybe has a high income from some "non-employment" arrangement, but it always implies ongoing income, not just that he was once left a lot of money from a rich relative). – FumbleFingers Jul 3 '19 at 11:52
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The common phrase is "a rich family". You might also say "a wealthy family" or "a prosperous family". They mean the same thing.

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