Word.ws English Dictionary

kinesics

Syllables: kin·es·icsUK/kɪˈniːsɪks//kəˈnisɪks/

kinesics noun: the study of non-verbal communication by means of gestures and/or other body movements.

Noun

kinesics (uncountable)

  1. The study of non-verbal communication by means of gestures and/or other body movements.
    • Section I consists of a brief discussion of the general field of kinesics which, it is hoped, will be suggestive to others working in this area whether their central focus be linguistic, psychiatric, or general cultural. The field of kinesics is divided methodologically in a manner approximating...1952, Ray L. Birdwhistell, “Preface”, in Introduction to Kinesics: An Annotation System for Analysis of Body Motion and Gesture, Louisville, Ky.: University of Kentucky, →OCLC, page 2
  2. Such non-verbal communication.
    Synonyms:
    body language

Synonyms of kinesics

Origin of kinesics

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κῑ́νησῐς (kī́nēsĭs, “motion”, noun) + English -ics (suffix forming nouns denoting fields of knowledge or practice), coined by the American anthropologist Ray L. Birdwhistell (1918–1994) in his work Introduction to Kinesics (1952) (see the quotation). Κῑ́νησῐς (Kī́nēsĭs) is derived from κῑνέω (kīnéō, “to set in motion, move”) (from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to be lying down; to settle”)) + -σῐς (-sĭs, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, process, or result). Compare kinesia and kinesic.

Questions about kinesics

What does kinesics mean?
Kinesics means the study of non-verbal communication by means of gestures and/or other body movements.
What part of speech is kinesics?
Kinesics is a noun.
How do you pronounce kinesics?
Kinesics is pronounced /kɪˈniːsɪks/ (UK).

Words near kinesics in the dictionary

  1. kinesialgia
  2. kinesiatric
  3. kinesiatrics
  4. kinesic
  5. kinesically
  6. kinesics
  7. kinesigenic
  8. kinesigenicity
  9. kinesimeter
  10. kinesimeters
  11. kinesin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kinesics (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-kinesics.ogg.

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