kin

1 of 3

noun

1
: a group of persons of common ancestry : clan
2
a
: one's relatives : kindred
our neighbors and their kin
close kin
b
: kinsman
he wasn't any kin to youJean Stafford
3
archaic : kinship

kin

2 of 3

adjective

-kin

3 of 3

noun suffix

kən
variants or less commonly -kins
kənz
: little
catkin
babykins

Examples of kin in a Sentence

Noun They are her distant kin. invited all of his kith and kin to his graduation party
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The show offers material, flesh-and-blood presence in place of ubiquitous camera pictures, both analog and digital, or their standard Conceptual art kin. Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2023 Then Maximus—the Daniel of their group, an orphan who’s visited for the first time that night by either extraterrestrial kin or schizophrenic hallucinations—complicates this assertion of cosmic cohesion by slipping out of his friends’ grasp. Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2023 Parents, grandparents, siblings and other kin of some of the 22 people killed last year at Robb Elementary streamed into the park, embracing the Olivers and each other. Mike Baker, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2023 Daryl eventually finds his zombified kin, and can barely bring himself to put him down. Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 7 Sep. 2023 Of the almost 50,000 under the payments under the current VCF, around 31,000 went to the responders or their spouses or other kin. Shawn Tully, Fortune, 26 July 2023 This is a problem for archivists and institutions, but also for individuals who might want to preserve the digital belongings of their dead kin. Tamara Kneese, WIRED, 21 Aug. 2023 What’s left after RST is unleashed is a symbol of what has been done, is still being done, to Retta and Kenny and their kin. Noah Berlatsky, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2023 Timothy Treadwell, an environmentalist and a filmmaker who lived with brown bears in Alaska for thirteen summers, loved the bears, thought of them as his friends, his kith and his kin. Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023
Adjective
Bennett’s musings have an ethical component: if a nuisance tree, or a dead tree, or a dead rat is my kin, then everything is kin—even a piece of trash. Morgan Meis, The New Yorker, 28 Feb. 2023 The Oscar winners have been friends for half a century and their kin span generations. Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2023 As for the common people, geographical and social isolation is sharply mitigated by modern transportation networks, as well as larger scale non-kin institutions such as the Christian church. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 25 Aug. 2010 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Old English cynn; akin to Old High German chunni race, Latin genus birth, race, kind, Greek genos, Latin gignere to beget, Greek gignesthai to be born

Adjective

attributive use of kin entry 1

Noun suffix

Middle English, from Middle Dutch -kin; akin to Old High German -chīn, diminutive suffix

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

1597, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of kin was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near kin

Cite this Entry

“Kin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kin. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

kin

1 of 3 noun
1
: a person's relatives
2

kin

2 of 3 adjective
: being related : kindred

-kin

3 of 3 noun suffix
kən
variants also -kins
kənz
: little
often used in affectionate nicknames
babykins
Etymology

Noun suffix

Middle English -kin "little," from early Dutch -kin "little"

Legal Definition

kin

noun
: one's relatives
kinship noun

More from Merriam-Webster on kin

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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