The DICT Development Group

  Gens \Gens\ (j[e^]nz), n.; pl. Gentes (j[e^]n"t[=e]z). [L. See
     Gentle, a.] (Rom. Hist.)
     1. 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Ethnol.) A minor subdivision of a tribe, among American
        aborigines. It includes those who have a common descent,
        and bear the same totem.
        [1913 Webster]

  gens
      n 1: family based on male descent; "he had no sons and there was
           no one to carry on his name" [syn: name, gens]

  48 Moby Thesaurus words for "gens":
     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
  
  

  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.