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.
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
This kind of loyalty, however, does not help their well-known kinfolk.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2021
Tom Hanks plays a former Confederate Army officer tasked with shepherding an orphaned girl across Texas to her surviving kinfolk in the 2020 western “News of the World.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2021
And it all started in those early years with her inclination to view trees as kinfolk.
From New York Times ● Jul. 30, 2021
Thinking about the kinfolk health histories was the only time I found comfort in being adopted.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Definitions 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.
