Kinder

How to spell kinder

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce kinder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does kinder mean?

1. adjectiveMore kind; showing greater gentleness, generosity, or consideration than someone or something else.

Kinder in a sentence

• The new manager was far kinder to the staff than her predecessor.

• A softer tone and a slower pace make any review feel kinder.

Where does kinder come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the comparative form of the adjective 'kind', which descends from the Old English 'gecynde', meaning 'natural', 'innate', or 'belonging to one by birth'. The root is tied to 'kin', the family or people one is born among, so the earliest sense carried the idea of behaving as one naturally should toward one's own. Over the medieval period the meaning softened from 'natural' and 'well-born' into the modern sense of being gentle, generous, and considerate toward others. The ending '-er' is the ancient Germanic comparative marker, the same one that turns 'old' into 'older' and 'warm' into 'warmer', and it attaches cleanly here because 'kind' ends in a consonant. Because the base word already ends in a 'd', the spelling simply adds '-er' with no doubling or dropping, which keeps it straightforward.

How the word is built

• kind (Old English gecynde: natural, well-disposed)
• -er (comparative suffix)