Word.ws English Dictionary

akin

/əˈkɪn/US/ʌˈkɪn/

akin adjective: of persons, of the same kin; related by blood.

Adjective

akin (comparative more akin, superlative most akin)

  1. Of persons, of the same kin; related by blood.
    • [W]e are too near a kin to lye together, tho' vve may Lodge near one another; […]1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page...
    • The faces changed, passing in rotation. Youthful faces, bearded faces, dark faces: faces serene, or faces moody, but all akin with the brotherhood of the sea.1897, Joseph Conrad, The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC
  2. Allied by nature; similar; partaking of the same properties; of the same kind.
    • Is not then Fruition near akin to Love?1677, Theophilus Gale, The Court of the Gentiles, T. Cockeril, part 4, bk. 1, ch. 2, p. 27
    • She told me that she hoped my Face was not akin to my Tongue.1710 March 19 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, March 9, 1709–1710. To the Spectator, &c..”, in The Spectator, number 8; republished in Alexander Chalmers...

Verb

akin (third-person singular simple present akins, present participle akinning, simple past and past participle akinned)

  1. (rare, transitive) To relate or compare; to liken.
    • I like to akin the P-Diddy case to Gen-Z's version of the O.J. Simpson trial.

Proper noun capitalized: Akin

Akin (plural Akins)

  1. A surname.

akin meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

akin in Urdu

ملتا جلتا, قریب

akin in Malayalam

രക്തബന്ധമുള്ള, സമാനമായ, സ്വഭാവ ഐക്യമുള്ള, സജാതീയ

akin in Kannada

ನೆತ್ತರನಂಟಿನ, ಸಮಾನ, ಸದೃಶ

Examples of akin in a sentence

  • Winkle . . . took his hand with a feeling of regard, akin to veneration.1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXIX, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […]...
  • Something akin to a smile shone on his face.1910 July, Zane Grey, “Old Well-Well”, in Success:
  • It will be basic with fares to match, so will be akin to a budget airline taking on a flag-carrier.2021 June 30, Philip Haigh, “Regional trains squeezed as ECML congestion heads north”, in RAIL, number 934, page 52:
  • After all, that would be akin to a self-coup.2022 January 19, Robert Alexander, “What 2020’s pro-Trump phony electors means for 2024”, in CNN, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2022:

All 40 example sentences with akin

Synonyms of akin

Forms of akin

Adjective
comparativemore akin
superlativemost akin
alternative form (obsolete)a kin
alternative form (obsolete)a-kin
Verb
third-person singular presentakins
present participleakinning
past participleakinned
pastakinned
Proper noun
pluralAkins

Origin of akin

From a corruption of of kin, from Middle English of kyn (“related, of kin”), equivalent to a- + kin (1550s). Compare Old English cyn, cynn (“akin, proper, suitable”, adj.).

Words formed from akin

Words that rhyme with akin

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about akin

What does akin mean?
Akin means of persons, of the same kin; related by blood.
What is akin in Urdu?
Akin in Urdu is ملتا جلتا, قریب. See Akin meaning in Urdu.
How do you use akin in a sentence?
Winkle . . . took his hand with a feeling of regard, akin to veneration.
What part of speech is akin?
Akin can be an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce akin?
Akin is pronounced /əˈkɪn/ (UK).

Words near akin in the dictionary

  1. akimbos
  2. Akimel O'odham
  3. akimotoite
  4. akimotoites
  5. akims
  6. akin
  7. Akina
  8. Akinas
  9. akinate
  10. akinates
  11. akind

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: akin (page history and authors); Akin (page history and authors); akin (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); akin (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); akin (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-akin.wav.

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