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Added 7 October 2026

kin

/kɪn/ symbol

symbol Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about kin at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Kinyarwanda.

noun

Race; family; breed; kind.
the starfish and its kin the sea urchin
Persons of the same race or family; kindred.
One or more relatives, such as siblings or cousins, taken collectively.

adjective

Related by blood or marriage, akin.
It turns out my back-fence neighbor is kin to one of my co-workers.

noun

Alternative form of qin (“Chinese string instrument”).

Origin

From Middle English kyn, from Old English cynn (“kind, sort, rank”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuni, from Proto-Germanic *kunją (“race, generation, descent”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₁yom, from *ǵenh₁- (“to produce”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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