Idiom
kind of
Meaning
Slightly; somewhat; sort of.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I am kind of tired today.”
“It feels kind of cold in this room right now.”
“The coffee tastes kind of bitter without any sugar.”
“That blue car looks kind of expensive.”
“The movie was kind of long, but the ending made it worth watching.”
“The new office chair is kind of uncomfortable, so I might need to buy a cushion for my back.”
“I kind of want to go to the party, but I also need to finish my homework before tomorrow.”
“He looks kind of nervous about the presentation, so we should probably give him some encouraging words before he starts.”
“The situation is kind of complicated, as the new regulations have created unexpected challenges for the entire department.”
Examples
simple
“I am kind of tired today.”
“It feels kind of cold in this room right now.”
“The coffee tastes kind of bitter without any sugar.”
“That blue car looks kind of expensive.”
contextual
“The movie was kind of long, but the ending made it worth watching.”
“The new office chair is kind of uncomfortable, so I might need to buy a cushion for my back.”
“I kind of want to go to the party, but I also need to finish my homework before tomorrow.”
“He looks kind of nervous about the presentation, so we should probably give him some encouraging words before he starts.”
complex
“The situation is kind of complicated, as the new regulations have created unexpected challenges for the entire department.”
Origin
From a reanalysis of the sequence *kind* + *of* within a noun phrase. The shift occurred when a construction such as "a kind of merry dance," originally signifying a specific type among merry dances, was reinterpreted as "a kind-of merry dance," indicating a somewhat merry dance. The noun phrase structure was thus recast to permit the phrase to function as an adverbial modifier.
Key words
Related idioms
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