Other forms: kinds, kinder
Kind means two entirely separate things and English keeps both in constant use. Ask what kind of coffee somebody wants and you are asking about sorts and types. Say it was kind of you to wait and you are talking about someone's character.
The type sense is the one you will meet first and hear most: this kind of, that kind of, all kinds of, some kind of. It also softens things — kind of tired, kind of expensive — where it does the work of almost. The character sense gives you kindness, kindly and unkind, which is a useful family to have.
1nountypeA group of things that are the same in some way; a sort.~98%
“What kind of music do you like?”
2adjectivekindCaring about others and ready to help them.~2%
“It was kind of you to wait.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 17 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: nice
Old English ġecynd meant inherent nature, and kin sits underneath it. That is why kind means both a type of thing and the way you treat people you count as your own.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Proto-Germanic
*kinþiz
Proto-West Germanic
*kundi
Old English
cynd
Middle English
kynde
English, today
kind
Built from
From Middle English kynde, kinde, from Old English cynd, ġecynd (“inherent nature, disposition, kind, gender, generation, race”), from Proto-West Germanic kundi, from Proto-Germanic kinþiz, related to kunją (“race, kin”) and Old English cennan (“to bear, give birth”). Cognate with Old High German gikunt (“nature, kind”), Icelandic kind (“race, species, kind”). a doublet of gens and genesis and jati. See also kin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA