kinfolk
Americanplural noun
plural noun
Etymology
Origin of kinfolk
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English kinnes-folk; see origin at kin, folk
Explanation
Your kinfolk are the people in your family. Even very distant cousins you've never met can be described as your kinfolk. When anthropologists use the term kinfolk, they mean people who are related by blood and share a common ancestor. You can use the word in a much wider way, though, to include people related by marriage and adoption, as well as friends who are so close you consider them part of your family. Kinfolk combines the Old English roots cynn, or "family," and folc, "people."
Vocabulary lists containing kinfolk
The Classical Period, c. 600 BCE to c. 600 CE
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2.1: Classical Empires in East Asia (Sources 1–8)
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The Only Black Girls in Town
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk, and if he wasn’t aware before the protest, he certainly is now.
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2026
Cozzens also takes an admirably nuanced approach to the Muscogee, Cherokee and Choctaw, who assisted Jackson over their Red Stick kinfolk, a detail that further complicates simplistic renderings of Indigenous-White relations.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 26, 2023
A pastry chef hosts her kinfolk for the holidays in the new TV movie “A Chestnut Family Christmas.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 28, 2021
And it all started in those early years with her inclination to view trees as kinfolk.
From New York Times ● Jul. 30, 2021
The little towns, where nobody waved, and the other passengers in the train, with whom I had achieved an almost kinfolk relationship, disappeared into a common strangeness.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
