Word.ws English Dictionary

-kin

-kin suffix: used to form adjectives expressing resemblance or likeness to, similar to -like.

Suffix (1)

-kin (adjective-forming suffix, not comparable)

  1. (dialectal) Used to form adjectives expressing resemblance or likeness to, similar to -like.
    • alkin
    • Dutchkin
  2. (plural -kin) Used to form nouns having qualities of or belonging to a particular kind, class, or sort.
    • otakukin
    • otherkin

Suffix (2)

-kin (noun-forming suffix, plural -kins)

  1. (archaic) Forming diminutives of nouns.
    Synonyms:
    -cule, -ee, -el, -et, -ette, -icle, -ie, -le, -let, -ling

Synonyms of -kin

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of -kin

plural-kin
plural-kins
alternative form-ikin

Origin of -kin

From Middle English -kin, -kinne, -kunne, from Old English cynna, the genitive plural of cynn (“kind, sort, rank”), used in compounds.

From Middle English -kyn, (also as -ke, -k), perhaps from Old English -ca, but probably instead from Middle Dutch -kin, apparently representing Proto-West Germanic *-ikīn, *-ukīn, a double diminutive, from *-ik, *-uk (> Old English -oc) + *-īn (compare Old English -en). Cognate with Dutch -ken, Low German -ken, German -chen, Old English -ċen. More at -ock, -en.

Questions about -kin

What does -kin mean?
-kin means used to form adjectives expressing resemblance or likeness to, similar to -like.
What part of speech is -kin?
-kin is a suffix.

Words near -kin in the dictionary

  1. -k
  2. -k-
  3. -kacin
  4. -kai-
  5. -ki-
  6. -kin
  7. -kin-
  8. -kind
  9. -kine
  10. -kinesia
  11. -kinesis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -kin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “-kin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-kin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.