kind

• enPR: kīnd, IPA^(key): /kaɪnd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪnd

From Middle English kynde, kunde, cunde, icunde, from Old English cynd (“generation, kind, nature, race”), ġecynd, from Proto-Germanic *kundiz, *gakundiz, related to *kunją. Cognate with Icelandic kind (“race, species, kind”). See also kin.

kind (plural kinds)

1. A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together.

   What kind of a person are you?

   This is a strange kind of tobacco.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     How diversely Love doth his pageants play, / And shows his power in variable kinds !

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎:

     “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
       Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”

2. A makeshift or otherwise atypical specimen.

   The opening served as a kind of window.

   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VIII

     I got my traps out of the canoe and made me a nice camp in the thick woods. I made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the rain couldn't get at them.

3. (archaic) One's inherent nature; character, natural disposition.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter vij, in Le Morte Darthur, book III:

     And whan he cam ageyne he sayd / O my whyte herte / me repenteth that thow art dede / […] / and thy deth shalle be dere bought and I lyue / and anone he wente in to his chamber and armed hym / and came oute fyersly / & there mette he with syr gauayne / why haue ye slayne my houndes said syr gauayn / for they dyd but their kynde

4. (archaic) Family, lineage.
5. (archaic) Manner.
6. Goods or services used as payment, as e.g. in barter.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     Some of you, on pure instinct of nature, / Are led by kind t'admire your fellow-creature.

7. Equivalent means used as response to an action.

   I'll pay in kind for his insult.

8. (Christianity) Each of the two elements of the communion service, bread and wine.

In sense “goods or services” or “equivalent means”, used almost exclusively with “in” in expression in kind.

• genre
• sort
• type
• derivative

(1) and/or (2)

• generation
• offspring
• child
• See also Thesaurus:class

From Middle English kinde, kunde, kende, from Old English cynde, ġecynde (“innate, natural, native”), from Old English cynd, ġecynd (“nature, kind”).

kind (comparative kinder, superlative kindest)

1. Having a benevolent, courteous, friendly, generous, gentle, liberal, sympathetic, or warm-hearted nature or disposition, marked by consideration for – and service to – others.
   • c. 1588–1593, [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: Printed by Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, OCLC 222241046, [Act II, scene iii]:

     Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The whilſt their owne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittiful.

2. Affectionate.

   a kind man; a kind heart

   • Goldsmith

     Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, / The love he bore to learning was his fault.

   • Waller

     O cruel Death, to those you take more kind / Than to the wretched mortals left behind.

3. Favorable.
4. Mild, gentle, forgiving

   The years have been kind to Richard Gere; he ages well.

5. Gentle; tractable; easily governed.

   a horse kind in harness

6. (obsolete) Characteristic of the species; belonging to one's nature; natural; native.
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:

     Ȝet haue I no kynde knowing quod I · ȝet mote ȝe kenne me better.

   • Holland

     It becometh sweeter than it should be, and loseth the kind taste.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

• See also Thesaurus:affectionate

• Kind in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• DINK, dink

From Dutch kind.

• IPA^(key): /kənt/

kind (plural kinders)

1. child

• dink

From Old Norse kinn, from Proto-Germanic *kinnuz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénu- (“cheek”). Compare Swedish kind, Norwegian and Icelandic kinn, Low German and German Kinn, Dutch kin, English chin.

• IPA^(key): /ken/, [kʰenˀ]

kind c (singular definite kinden, plural indefinite kinder)

1. cheek

• Rhymes: -ɪnt

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /kɪnt/

From Middle Dutch kint, from Old Dutch kint, from Proto-Germanic *kindą (“offspring”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁tóm (“that which is produced, that which is given birth to”), related to *ǵn̥h₁tós (“produced, given birth”), from *ǵenh₁- (“to produce, to give birth”).

kind n (plural kinderen or kinders, diminutive kindje n or kindertje n or kindeken n or kindelijn n)

1. child, kid, non-adult human
2. descendant, still a minor or irrespective of age

   In sommige patriarchale tradities blijven kinderen levenslang onvoorwaardelijk onderworpen aan het vaderlijk gezag, zoals aanvankelijk in het Oude Rome, in andere houdt een zoon op kind te zijn door zijn eigen gezin te stichten

   In certain patriarchal traditions, children remain subject to unconditional paternal authority for life, as originally in Ancient Rome, in other ones a son ceases to be a child by founding his own family

   Synonyms: afstammeling, telg

3. (figuratively) product of influence, breeding etc.

• The normal plural is kinderen. The form kinders is heard colloquially.
• In compounds, the word can take the form kinder- or kind-. The former is used more often, however.
• The dimunitive kindelijn is now archaic, but can still be found in some fossilized songs and religious texts.

• dochter
• zoon
• blaag

• Afrikaans: kind

From Old Norse kind, from Proto-Germanic *kinþiz, cognate with Latin gēns (“clan, tribe”). The sense of “sheep” is derived from the compound sauðkind, literally “sheep-kind”.

• IPA^(key): /cʰɪnt/
• Rhymes: -ɪnt

kind f

1. (obsolete) race, kind, kin
2. a sheep (especially a ewe)
3. (dated) used as a term of disparagement for a girl (or woman)

• (sheep): rolla, sauðkind

• kindarlegur
• mannkind
• sauðkind

From Proto-Germanic *kinþiz. Compare Latin gēns (“clan, tribe”).

kind f (genitive kindar, plural kindir or kindr)

1. race, kind, kin
2. creature, being

• mannkind
• sauðkind

• Icelandic: kind f

• kind in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

From Proto-Germanic *kindą (“child”).

kind n

1. child

• Middle Low German: kind, kint, kynd
  • Dutch Low Saxon: kind, kiend, keend
  • German Low German: Kind
  • → Old Frisian: kind
    • West Frisian: kyn

From Old Norse kinn, from Proto-Germanic *kinnuz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénu- (“cheek”). Compare Danish kind, Norwegian and Icelandic kinn, German Kinn, Dutch kin, English chin.

• IPA^(key): /ɕɪnd/

• audio

  (file)

kind c

1. (anatomy) cheek; a part of the face.