Taking heart as a family (4)

I believe the answer is:

akin

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'taking' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'heart as a family' is the wordplay.
'heart' indicates the central letters.
'as' becomes 'equally' ('equally' can be a synonym of 'as').
'a family' becomes 'kin' ('kin' can be a synonym of 'family').
The middle letter of 'equally' is 'a'.
'a'+'kin'='AKIN'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for akin that I've seen before include "Close" , "Similar in quality" , "Of a similar nature" , "Similar, like" , "Of similar character" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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