Kin Definition

kĭn
noun
One's family; relatives; kinfolk; kindred.
Webster's New World
A relative or family member.
American Heritage Medicine
Organisms that are genetically related to another or others.
Cauliflower and its kin.
American Heritage Medicine
A relation, typically by blood; sometimes used to refer to relations by marriage or adoption.
Webster's New World Law

Relationship; same-bloodedness or affinity; near connection or alliance, as of those having common descent.

Wiktionary
adjective
Related genetically or in the same family.
American Heritage Medicine
Related, as by blood.
She is kin to my brother-in-law.
Webster's New World
Related by blood or marriage, akin. Generally used in "kin to".
It turns out my back-fence neighbor is kin to one of my co-workers.
Wiktionary
Synonyms:
suffix
Little one.
Devilkin.
American Heritage
affix
Little (specified person or thing)
Lambkin.
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Kin

Noun

Singular:
kin
Plural:
kins

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Kin

  • of kin

Origin of Kin

  • From Middle English kin, kyn, ken, kun, from Old English cynn (“kind, sort, rank, quality, family, generation, offspring, pedigree, kin, race, people, gender, sex, propriety, etiquette”), from Proto-Germanic *kunją (“race, generation, descent”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to produce”). Cognate with Scots kin (“relatives, kinfolk”), North Frisian kinn, kenn (“gender, race, family, kinship”), Dutch kunne (“gender, sex”), Middle Low German kunne (“gender, sex, race, family, lineage”), German Künne, Kunne (“kin, kind, race”), Danish køn (“gender, sex”), Swedish kön (“gender, sex”), Icelandic kyn (“gender”), and through Indo-European, with Latin genus (“kind, sort, ancestry, birth”), Ancient Greek γένος (genos, “kind, race”), Albanian dhen (“(herd of) small cattle”).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old English cyn genə- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • ME < MDu -ken, -kijn, dim. suffix, akin to Ger -chen

    From Webster's New World College Dictionary, 5th Edition

  • Middle English probably from Middle Dutch -kijn, -kin

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to kin using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

Words Ending With

Unscrambles

kin