I. NOUN USES AND PHRASES
/kaɪnd/
( kinds)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
If you talk about a particular kind of thing, you are talking about one of the types or sorts of that thing.
The party needs a different kind of leadership...
Had Jamie ever been in any kind of trouble?...
This book prize is the biggest of its kind in the world...
= sort, type
N-COUNT : usu N of n
2.
If you refer to someone’s kind , you are referring to all the other people that are like them or that belong to the same class or set.
I can take care of your kind.
= sort, type
N-COUNT : poss N [ disapproval ]
3.
You can use all kinds of to emphasize that there are a great number and variety of particular things or people.
Adoption can fail for all kinds of reasons...
PHRASE : PHR n [ emphasis ]
4.
You use kind of when you want to say that something or someone can be roughly described in a particular way. ( SPOKEN )
It was kind of sad, really...
PHRASE : PHR adj / adv / n , PHR before v [ vagueness ]
5.
You can use of a kind to indicate that something is not as good as it might be expected to be, but that it seems to be the best that is possible or available.
She finds solace of a kind in alcohol.
PHRASE : n PHR
6.
If you refer to someone or something as one of a kind , you mean that there is nobody or nothing else like them.
She’s a very unusual woman, one of a kind.
PHRASE [ approval ]
7.
If you refer, for example, to two, three, or four of a kind , you mean two, three, or four similar people or things that seem to go well or belong together.
They were two of a kind, from the same sort of background.
PHRASE
8.
If you respond in kind , you react to something that someone has done to you by doing the same thing to them.
They hurled defiant taunts at the riot police, who responded in kind.
PHRASE : PHR after v
9.
If you pay a debt in kind , you pay it in the form of goods or services and not money.
...benefits in kind.
PHRASE : PHR after v , n PHR
II. ADJECTIVE USES
/kaɪnd/
( kinder, kindest)
1.
Someone who is kind behaves in a gentle, caring, and helpful way towards other people.
I must thank you for being so kind to me...
It was very kind of you to come.
ADJ : oft ADJ to n , it v-link ADJ of n to-inf
• kind‧ly
‘You seem tired this morning, Jenny,’ she said kindly.
ADV : ADV after v
2.
You can use kind in expressions such as please be so kind as to and would you be kind enough to in order to ask someone to do something in a firm but polite way.
I wonder if you’d be kind enough to call him.
ADJ : v-link ADJ [ politeness ]
3.
see also kindly , kindness