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Is the word kid slang?
Some people worry that kid, when used of a child rather than a juvenile goat, is either slang or too colloquial to merit acceptance in standard English.
The fact is that we have been using kid to refer to a child that is human, rather than goatish, for more than three hundred years now. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that although this word was considered “low slang” when it first began being used, it had entered “familiar speech” by the 19th century.
In contemporary English, kid is neither slang nor improper. It is, however, most definitely informal, so those writing professionally or in a formal register might prefer to use child.
Examples of kid in a Sentence
The Tennessean, 24 July 2025
How many kids can one person chaperone at the Indiana State Fair?
—Katie Wiseman, IndyStar, 24 July 2025
Oliver Staley, Time, 25 July 2025
No kid brother tagging along, pestering him with questions, pushing up on his social circle.
—Stylecaster Editors, StyleCaster, 21 July 2025
Lila Shroff, The Atlantic, 14 July 2025
Apparently Brooks Nader wasn’t kidding about that, because on July 8 she was spotted freeing the nipple in a sheer black top on a dinner date with friend Lauren Sanchez in Paris, per photos published by the Daily Mail.
—Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for kid
Cite this Entry
“Kid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kid. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
kid
2 of 2 verb
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