kind
Pronunciation 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.
    • How diversely Love doth his pageants play, / And shows his power in variable kinds !
  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, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:5.7?rgn=div2;view=fulltext 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.
    • 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.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • French: nature
  • Russian: нату́ра
Adjective

kind (comparative kinder, superlative kindest)

  1. Having a benevolent, courteous, friendly, generous, gentle, liberal#Adjective|liberal, sympathetic, or warm-hearted nature#Noun|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
    • Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, / The love he bore to learning was his fault.
    • 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.
    • It becometh sweeter than it should be, and loseth the kind taste.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations
  • German: mild
  • Russian: мя́гкий
Translations
  • Russian: пода́тливый
Translations
  • Russian: прису́щий



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