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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
Terry Collins, USA Today, 20 Apr. 2025
Below, here are all of the comments Elon Musk has made about his ever-growing number of kids.
—Jordana Comiter, People.com, 19 Apr. 2025
Bruce Handy, The Atlantic, 16 Apr. 2025
Ron Howard is proud of his kid brother Clint, who recently had a guest run on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as down-and-out musician Tom Starr.
—Lizzie Hyman, People.com, 5 Apr. 2025
Will McGough, Forbes.com, 26 Mar. 2025
Huang may have been kidding, but Nvidia spent much of its event detailing just how much better its Blackwell chips are.
—Kif Leswing, CNBC, 26 Mar. 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 23 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
kid
2 of 2 verb
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