kinfolk

American  

[kin-fohk] / ˈkɪnˌfoʊk /

Also kinfolks,

plural noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. relatives or kindred.

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kinfolk British  

/ ˈkɪnˌfəʊk /

plural noun

1. another word for kinsfolk

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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."

Example Sentences

Of course, like most Americans, we were paying no attention whatsoever to developments in Sudan before the fighting started — and before we learned that our own kinfolk were in danger.

From Salon • Jul. 30, 2023

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

The story line in “Shucked” is partly a corollary to the real-life relationship between Horn’s Yankee family and his husband’s Southern kinfolk.

From New York Times • Mar. 21, 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

Shusgis? house was a whole island, housing over a hundred employees, domestic servants, clerks, technical advisers, and so on, but no relatives, no kinfolk.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin