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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
David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 5 Aug. 2025
Hulk Hogan happened to be in the studio and body slams the kid on top of the mixing board and called him a Jabroni.
—Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 5 Aug. 2025
Jesse Pines, Forbes.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and some other app makers are eager to shift the burden of online kid safety to the app stores rather than take on more of the responsibility themselves.
—David Ingram, NBC news, 31 July 2025
Scott Powers, New York Times, 29 July 2025
There’s a big gulf between pro marathoners and high-school track, of course—but don’t kid yourself that they’re not connected.
—Alex Hutchinson, Outside Online, 25 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 15 Aug. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
kid
2 of 2 verb
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