Kiss

How to spell kiss

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce kiss

What does kiss mean?

1. verbTo touch someone or something with the lips as a sign of love, greeting, or respect.
2. nounAn act of touching with the lips as an expression of affection or greeting.

Kiss in a sentence

• verb

  She leaned over to kiss the baby goodnight.

• noun

  She blew a kiss across the crowded platform as the train pulled away.

• verb

  Many cultures kiss on both cheeks as a greeting.

• noun

  A quick kiss on the forehead reassured the frightened child.

Where does kiss come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English verb cyssan, meaning to touch or press with the lips, and the related noun coss. Both go back to a Germanic root that survives across the family, seen in the German kuss and the Dutch kus, and many scholars think the form began as an imitation of the soft sound the lips make. The spelling settled with a single k and a doubled s, the double consonant marking the short vowel just as it does in miss and hiss. Although the word feels modern and casual, it has been in continuous use for well over a thousand years, changing remarkably little. The doubling of the final s is the only real point to remember when writing it.

How the word is built

• kiss (from Old English cyssan, to touch with the lips), a single unanalysable root with no prefix or suffix