English
kind
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English kynde, kunde, cunde, icunde, from Old English cynd, ġecynd, from Proto-West Germanic *kundi, from Proto-Germanic *kinþiz, related to Proto-Germanic *kunją (“race, kin”) and Old English cennan.

Noun

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.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 1:
      How diversely Love doth his pageants play, / And shews his powre in variable kinds !
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC ↗:
      “ […] 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 December 9, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer's Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  4. (archaic) Family, lineage.
    • "She Moved through the Fair" (traditional Irish folk song)
      My young love said to me, My mother won’t mind
      And my father won’t slight you for your lack of kind.
  5. (archaic) Manner.
  6. Goods or services used as payment, as e.g. in barter.
    • 1691, John Dryden, Prologue to King Arthur:
      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.
  9. (type theory) The type of a type constructor or a higher-order type operator.
    The kind of any primitive data type is *, corresponding to a nullary constructor.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English kinde, kunde, kende, from Old English cynde, ġecynde, from Old English cynd, ġecynd.

Adjective

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 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC ↗, [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
    • 1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC ↗:
      Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, / The love he bore to learning was in fault.
  3. Favorable.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii ↗:
      Thy words aſſure me of kind ſucceſſe:
      Go valiant Souldier, go before and charge
      The fainting army of that foolish King.
  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.
    • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC ↗:
      it becommeth sweeter than it should be, and loseth the kind tast.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations

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