kinda

English

Etymology 1

Written form of a reduction or pronunciation spelling of kind of.

Alternative forms

• kinder

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪndə/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (also) IPA^(key): /ˈkaɪnə/
• Rhymes: -aɪnə

Adverb

kinda (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Kind of; somewhat.

   Synonym: sorta

   I kinda hafta do this right now.

   That’s kinda funny.

   • 1912 October 12, Courtney Ryley Cooper, “Somewhere Safe to Sea”, in Collier’s, volume 50, Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, page 18:

     But when I spoke about it he just smiled and shook his head, and started whistling to himself kinda soft.

   • 1920 April 10 – August 28, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter 11, in The Little Warrior [Jill the Reckless], New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 8 October 1920, →OCLC, section 1, page 194:

     … He got on Forty-second Street, and he was kinda fresh from the start. At Sixty-sixth he came sasshaying^[sic] right down the car and said ‘Hello, patootie!’ Well, I drew myself up …

   • 2006, Ron Hall, Denver Moore, Lynn Vincent, Same Kind of Different as Me, page 13:

     In those days, flour sacks was kinda purty. They might come printed up with flowers on em, or birds.

   • 2010, Eric Anthony Galvez, Reversal: When a Therapist Becomes a Patient, page 37:

     The facial expression on my mask kinda looks like Han Solo in the carbonite …

Contraction

kinda (plural kindsa)

1. (colloquial) Contraction of kind of.
   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 128:

     Carmiesha had never once busted him in a lie, and she never had no kinda drama with him and no other chick. She damn sure couldn't say that for Dre.

   • 2008, Jacob Curtis, The Song Itself: A Gnostic Remembrance, page 68:

     What kinda music do ya want ta play? Do ya want volume or somethin' more subtle?

Derived terms

• kinda sorta
• some kinda
• sorta kinda

 

Interjection

kinda

1. Yes in some respects but no in other respects.

   "Are you afraid of a little bit of rain?" "Kinda, yeah."

   • 2000, Ken Wells, Meely LaBauve, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 212:

     Ah, I see. Meely doesn't tease you. You're best friends, is that right? / Kinda.

Etymology 2

After the town of Kinda, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɪndə/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndə

Noun

kinda (plural kindas)

1. A subspecies of baboon, Papio cynocephalus kindae, primarily found in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and possibly western Tanzania.
   • 2006, The National Geographic Magazine, volume 212, numbers 4-6, page 18:

     In the wild, when a baboon called a kinda pairs with a chacma or yellow baboon, their progeny is still a baboon — but it's a hybrid of interest to Society grantees Jane Phillips-Conroy and Clifford Jolly, who are tracking gene flow in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park.

Anagrams

• Adkin, Dakin, Dinka, kadin

Old Norse

Noun

kinda

1. genitive plural of kind

Swahili

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

Noun

kinda (ma class, plural makinda)

1. chick (young bird)

Vlax Romani

Noun

kinda f

1. (Lovara) kitchen

References

• “kinda” in Lovara Romani-English Dictionary, ROMLEX – the Romani Lexicon Project, 2000.