Definitions

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

  • noun One's relatives or family.
  • noun A relative or family member.
  • noun Organisms that are genetically related to another or others.
  • adjective Related genetically or in the same family.
  • adjective Related or similar; akin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of kin; of the same blood; related.
  • Of the same kind or nature; having affinity.
  • noun A chap or chilblain.
  • noun A weight, in use in China and Japan, equal to 601.043 grams, or nearly 1⅓ pounds avoirdupois; a catty.
  • noun Race; family; breed; kind.
  • noun Collectively, persons of the same race or family; kindred.
  • noun Relationship; consanguinity or affinity; near connection or alliance, as of those having common descent.
  • noun Kind; sort; manner; way.
  • noun A person's nearest relatives according to the civil law. (Stimson.) The phrase does not include a widow, she being specifically provided for by the law as widow, and it is sometimes used in contradistinction to children: as, the widow, children, and next of kin. In either use it means that one (or more) who stands in the nearest degree of blood-relationship to the deceased. What degree is deemed nearest varies somewhat in the details of the law of different jurisdictions; but in general where there are no children, or descendants of children, the father is the next of kin, and if there is no father, the mother, and if no parent, the brothers and sisters are the next of kin, and so on.— Of kin, of the same kin; having relationship; of the same nature or kind; akin. See akin.
  • noun A diminutive suffix, attached to nouns to signify a little object of the kind mentioned: as, lambkin, a little iamb; pipkin, a little pipe: catkin, a little cat, etc.
  • noun Same as kine.
  • noun A Chinese musical instrument, of very ancient origin, having from five to twenty-five silken strings. It is played like a lute.

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

  • noun (Mus.) A primitive Chinese instrument of the cittern kind, with from five to twenty-five silken strings.
  • noun Relationship, consanguinity, or affinity; connection by birth or marriage; kindred; near connection or alliance, as of those having common descent.
  • noun Relatives; persons of the same family or race.
  • adjective Of the same nature or kind; kinder.
  • (Physics) The unit velocity in the C. G. S. system -- a velocity of one centimeter per second.

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

  • noun Race; family; breed; kind.
  • noun collectively Persons of the same race or family; kindred.
  • noun One or more relatives, such as siblings or cousins, taken collectively.
  • noun Relationship; same-bloodedness or affinity; near connection or alliance, as of those having common descent.
  • noun Kind; sort; manner; way.
  • adjective Related by blood or marriage, akin. Generally used in "kin to".

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun group of people related by blood or marriage
  • noun a person having kinship with another or others
  • adjective related by blood

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English cyn; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English kin, kyn, ken, kun, from Old English cynn ("kind, sort, rank, quality, family, generation, offspring, pedigree, kin, race, people, gender, sex, propriety, etiquette"), from Proto-Germanic *kunjan (“race, generation, descent”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to produce”). Cognate with Scots kin ("relatives, kinfolk"), North Frisian kinn, kenn ("gender, race, family, kinship"), Dutch kunne ("gender, sex"), Middle Low German kunne ("gender, sex, race, family, lineage"), German Künne, Kunne ("kin, kind, race"), Swedish kön ("gender, sex"), Icelandic kyn ("gender"), Latin genus ("kind, sort, ancestry, birth"), Ancient Greek γένος (genos, "kind, race"), Albanian dhen ("(herd of) small cattle").

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