kind

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature.
2. adj. Showing sympathy or understanding; charitable: a kind word.
3. adj. Humane; considerate: kind to animals.
4. adj. Forbearing; tolerant: Our neighbor was very kind about the window we broke.
5. adj. Generous; liberal: kind words of praise.
6. adj. Agreeable; beneficial: a dry climate kind to asthmatics.
7. n. A group of individuals or instances sharing common traits; a category or sort: different kinds of furniture; a new kind of politics.
8. n. A doubtful or borderline member of a given category: fashioned a kind of shelter; a kind of bluish color.
9. n. Archaic Underlying character as a determinant of the class to which a thing belongs; nature or essence.
10. n. Archaic The natural order or course of things; nature.
11. n. Archaic Manner or fashion.
12. idiom. all kinds of Informal Plenty of; ample: We have all kinds of time to finish the job.
13. idiom. in kind With produce or commodities rather than with money: pay in kind.
14. idiom. in kind In the same manner or with an equivalent: returned the slight in kind.
15. idiom. kind of Informal Rather; somewhat: I'm kind of hungry.
16. idiom. of a kind Of the same kind; alike: My father and my uncle are two of a kind.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. 1. Native; natural; characteristic; proper to the genus, species, or individual.
2. Of a sympathetic nature or disposition; beneficently disposed: good-hearted; considerate and tender in the treatment of others; benevolent; benignant.
3. Loving; affectionate; full of tenderness; caressing.
4. Marked by sympathetic feeling; proceeding from goodness of heart; amiable; obliging: considerate: as, a kind act; kind treatment; kind regards.
5. Of a favorable character or quality; propitious; serviceable; adaptable; tractable: as, kind weather; a horse kind in harness.
6. = Syn. 2 and 3. Gracious, Good-natured, etc. (see benignant); Kindly, etc. (see kindly); benign, beneficent, bounteous, generous, indulgent, tender, humane, compassionate, good, lenient, clement, mild, gentle, bland, friendly, amicable.
7. n. Nature; natural constitution or character.
8. n. Natural disposition, propensity, bent, or characteristic.
9. n. Natural descent.
10. n. A class; a sort; a species; a number of individual objects having common characters peculiar to them.
11. n. In a loose use, a variety; a particular variation or variant: as, a kind of low fever. See kind of, below.
12. n. Gender; sex.
13. n. Specific manner or way; method of action or operation.
14. n. Race; family; stock; descent; a line of individuals related as parent or ancestor and child or descendant.
15. n. Blood-relationship.
16. n. Also, in phrases like what kind of a thing is this? he is a poor kind of fellow (that is, a thing of what kind, a fellow of a poor kind), kind of has come to seem like an adjective element before the noun, and hence before a plural noun, after words like some, all, and especially these and those, it sometimes keeps the singular form: as, these kind of people. This inaccuracy is very old, and still far from rare, both in speaking and in writing; but good usage condemns it.
17. n. Synonyms Sort, Kind (see sort); breed, species, set, family, description.
18. To beget.
19. n. A cricket.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Affectionate, showing benevolence.
2. adj. Favorable.
3. adj. mild, gentle, forgiving
4. n. A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together.
5. n. A makeshift or otherwise atypical specimen.
6. n. archaic One's inherent nature; character, natural disposition.
7. n. Goods or services used as payment, as e.g. in a barter.
8. n. Equivalent means used as response to an action.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. obsolete Characteristic of the species; belonging to one's nature; natural; native.
2. adj. Having feelings befitting our common nature; congenial; sympathetic.
3. adj. Showing tenderness or goodness; disposed to do good and confer happiness; averse to hurting or paining; benevolent; benignant; gracious.
4. adj. Proceeding from, or characterized by, goodness, gentleness, or benevolence.
5. adj. Gentle; tractable; easily governed.
6. n. obsolete Nature; natural instinct or disposition.
7. n. Race; genus; species; generic class.
8. n. Sort; type; class; nature; style; character; fashion; manner; variety; description.
9. v. obsolete To beget.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality
2. adj. having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior
3. adj. agreeable, conducive to comfort
4. adj. tolerant and forgiving under provocation