# kind

Pronunciation: say "KYND" /kaɪnd/

## Noun

1. A type or category of things that share common features and can be grouped together.
   - Simple: A group of things that are alike in some way.
   - _He's the kind of person who remembers everyone's name._
   - _Botanists classify many different kinds of flowering plants._
3. A makeshift or atypical example of something: a rough approximation rather than the true article.
   - Simple: A rough, makeshift version of something, not the real thing.
   - _They strung up a kind of tent using branches and a tarp._
   - _He cobbled together a kind of desk from crates and a plank._
4. Goods or services given as payment, as in barter, rather than money.
   - Simple: Payment made with goods or work instead of money.
   - _Tenants once paid their rent in kind, handing over a share of the harvest._
   - _The charity gladly accepts donations in kind, such as food and clothing._
6. An equivalent response that matches another person's action, returned in the same manner.
   - Simple: A response that matches what someone else did to you.
   - _The country warned that it would respond in kind if the tariffs took effect._
   - _She met his sarcasm in kind._
5. Food considered as belonging to a particular category or group. *(Caribbean)*
   - Simple: Food that belongs to a certain group or type.
   - _She stopped eating meat kind after her doctor warned her about her pressure._
   - _On Good Friday the family ate only fish kind, never any meat._

## Adjective

2. Having or showing a gentle, caring nature through consideration, generosity, helpfulness, or affection.
   - Simple: Caring about others and showing it by being gentle, helpful, generous, or loving.
   - _The nurse remained kind and patient even during the busiest shifts._
   - _Strangers can be surprisingly kind when you need help the most._
7. Of a thing or circumstance, gentle in its effect or treating someone well rather than harshly.
   - Simple: Gentle, not harsh, or good to someone, as in 'kind to your skin'.
   - _The new shampoo is kind to color-treated hair._
   - _Low, kind lighting in the restaurant made the faded wallpaper look almost new._
8. Gentle and easily managed or controlled; tractable.
   - Simple: Gentle and easy to control or manage.
   - _The mare proved kind under saddle, responding calmly to every command._
   - _He bred dogs that were kind and easily handled._

## Noun

9. One's inherent nature; natural character or disposition. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A person's true nature or character.
10. One's family, ancestry, or lineage. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A person's family or family line.
11. A way, manner, or fashion of doing something. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A way of doing something.

## Adjective

12. Natural or native; belonging by nature to a thing or to its species. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Belonging to something's nature, natural to it.

## Other meanings

- (noun) In type theory, the type of a type constructor or higher-order type operator: a classification of types themselves.
- (noun) Either of the two elements of the communion service, the bread or the wine.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3–6, 9–11** — From Middle English kynde, from Old English cynd, ġecynd ("inherent nature, disposition, kind, race, generation"), from Proto-West Germanic *kundi and Proto-Germanic *kinþiz, related to words for race and kin and to Old English cennan ("to bear, give birth"). It has cognates in Old High German and Icelandic, and is a doublet of gens, genesis, and jati.
**Meanings 2, 7–8, 12** — Old English had the noun cynd or ġecynd ("nature, kind"), and from it came the adjective cynde or ġecynde ("innate, natural, native"). That adjective became Middle English kynde, the source of the modern word.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/kind (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).