Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A group of individuals or instances sharing common traits; a category or sort.
  • noun A doubtful or borderline member of a given category.
  • noun Underlying character as a determinant of the class to which a thing belongs; nature or essence.
  • noun The natural order or course of things; nature.
  • noun Manner or fashion.
  • noun Lineal ancestry or descent.
  • noun Lineal ancestors or descendants considered as a group.
  • idiom (all kinds of) Plenty of; ample.
  • idiom (in kind) With produce or commodities rather than with money.
  • idiom (in kind) In the same manner or with an equivalent.
  • idiom (kind of) Rather; somewhat.
  • idiom (of a kind) Of the same kind; alike.
  • adjective Having or showing a friendly, generous, sympathetic, or warm-hearted nature.
  • adjective Agreeable or beneficial.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cricket.
  • noun Nature; natural constitution or character.
  • noun Natural disposition, propensity, bent, or characteristic.
  • noun Natural descent.
  • noun A class; a sort; a species; a number of individual objects having common characters peculiar to them.
  • noun In a loose use, a variety; a particular variation or variant: as, a kind of low fever. See kind of, below.
  • noun Gender; sex.
  • noun Specific manner or way; method of action or operation.
  • noun Race; family; stock; descent; a line of individuals related as parent or ancestor and child or descendant.
  • noun Blood-relationship.
  • noun 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.
  • noun Synonyms Sort, Kind (see sort); breed, species, set, family, description.
  • 1. Native; natural; characteristic; proper to the genus, species, or individual.
  • Of a sympathetic nature or disposition; beneficently disposed: good-hearted; considerate and tender in the treatment of others; benevolent; benignant.
  • Loving; affectionate; full of tenderness; caressing.
  • Marked by sympathetic feeling; proceeding from goodness of heart; amiable; obliging: considerate: as, a kind act; kind treatment; kind regards.
  • Of a favorable character or quality; propitious; serviceable; adaptable; tractable: as, kind weather; a horse kind in harness.
  • = 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.
  • To beget.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Nature; natural instinct or disposition.
  • noun Race; genus; species; generic class.
  • noun Sort; type; class; nature; style; character; fashion; manner; variety; description
  • noun something belonging to the class of; something like to; -- said loosely or slightingly.
  • noun in the produce or designated commodity itself, as distinguished from its value in money.
  • transitive verb obsolete To beget.
  • adjective obsolete Characteristic of the species; belonging to one's nature; natural; native.
  • adjective Having feelings befitting our common nature; congenial; sympathetic
  • adjective Showing tenderness or goodness; disposed to do good and confer happiness; averse to hurting or paining; benevolent; benignant; gracious.
  • adjective Proceeding from, or characterized by, goodness, gentleness, or benevolence.
  • adjective Gentle; tractable; easily governed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Affectionate, showing benevolence.
  • adjective Favorable.
  • adjective mild, gentle, forgiving

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English gecynd, race, offspring, kind; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English kinde, natural, kind, from Old English gecynde, natural; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English cynde, cynd ("generation").

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Examples

  • But if you are into that kind of entertainment, fair enough.. theres tonnes of movies like that out there… and don't get me wrong… i thought "Knowing" was kind of entertaining..kind of funny even with that gooky script who wouldnt?

    Roger Ebert's Two Lists of the Best Films of 2009 Unveiled « FirstShowing.net 2009

  • (ZHAHN-ruh) The kind or type of a work of art, from the French, meaning “kind” or “genus.

    genre 2002

  • Whatever the kind, or the amount stolen, the unvarying penalty was double of _the same kind_.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • Whatever the kind, or the amount stolen, the unvarying penalty was double of _the same kind_.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • I feel that I must be so kind, kind, _kind_ to _everybody_!

    The Flirt Booth Tarkington 1907

  • The proof rather lies within the domain of the soul itself, and is not something which may be tacked on to any kind of external, spatial existence; it is the emergence of a _new kind_ of existence or _self-subsistence.

    An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy 1905

  • His stage of progress in knowledge was this, that during the discharge of _one_ kind of rays of force from the cathode pole in a Crookes tube _another kind_ of rays are set free, which differ totally in their nature and effects from anything hitherto known.

    Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World Various 1870

  • I think him as perfect, of his kind, as possible; though it is a _kind_ of art with which I do not sympathize.

    Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, Volume 2 Harriet Beecher Stowe 1853

  • A very useful and very remarkable kind of prophecy indeed, this inductive prophecy appears to be; and the question arises, whether _a kind_, endowed of God with a faculty of seeing, which commands the future in so inclusive a manner, and with so near and sufficient an aim for the most important practical purposes, ought to be besieging Heaven for a _super_natural gift, and questioning the ancient seers for some vague shadows of the coming event, instead of putting this immediate endowment -- this 'godlike' endowment -- under culture.

    The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Delia Bacon 1835

  • '_nature_,' the fact that the human species is _a species_, -- the fact that the human kind is but a _kind_, neighboured with many others from which it is isolated by its native walls of ignorance, -- neighboured with many others, more or less known, known and unknown, more or less

    The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Delia Bacon 1835

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