Kinship

How to spell kinship

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce kinship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does kinship mean?

1. nounThe state of being related by blood or family, or a sense of close connection or affinity.

Kinship in a sentence

• The genealogist mapped the kinship between the two branches of the family.

• Despite living on opposite sides of the country, they felt a deep kinship rooted in shared values.

Where does kinship come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word joins two pieces of native English ancestry. The first part, 'kin', comes from the Old English 'cynn', meaning a family, race, or class of people; it traces back to a Germanic root tied to birth and descent, and it is a cousin of the Latin 'genus' and Greek 'genos', both meaning 'kind' or 'race'. The second part is the Old English suffix '-scipe', which formed nouns describing a state, condition, or quality, and which survives today in words such as 'friendship' and 'hardship'. Put together, 'kinship' literally names the condition of being kin, that is, related by blood or family. The compound itself is recorded from around the early 1300s, and over time its sense broadened from strict family ties to any close affinity or feeling of connection between people or things.

How the word is built

• kin (family, relatives)
• -ship (state or condition suffix)