kind [1] (kinds plural ) (NOUN USES AND PHRASES)
1 n-count If you talk about a particular kindof thing, you are talking about one of the types or sorts of that thing.
usu N of n
(=sort, type)
The party needs a different kind of leadership..., Had Jamie ever been in any kind of trouble?..., This book prize is the biggest of its kind in the world...
2 n-count If you refer to someone's kind, you are referring to all the other people that are like them or that belong to the same class or set.
poss N (disapproval)
(=sort, type)
I can take care of your kind.
3 You can use all kinds of to emphasize that there are a great number and variety of particular things or people.
all kinds of phrase PHR n (emphasis)
Adoption can fail for all kinds of reasons...
4 You use kind of when you want to say that something or someone can be roughly described in a particular way.
SPOKEN
kind of phrase PHR adj/adv/n, PHR before v (vagueness)
It was kind of sad, really...
5 You can use of a kind to indicate that something is not as good as it might be expected to be, but that it seems to be the best that is possible or available.
of a kind phrase n PHR
She finds solace of a kind in alcohol.
6 If you refer to someone or something as one of a kind, you mean that there is nobody or nothing else like them.
one of a kind phrase
(approval)
She's a very unusual woman, one of a kind.
7 If you refer, for example, to two, three, or four of a kind, you mean two, three, or four similar people or things that seem to go well or belong together.
two/three/four of a kind phrase
They were two of a kind, from the same sort of background.
8 If you respond in kind, you react to something that someone has done to you by doing the same thing to them.
in kind phrase PHR after v
They hurled defiant taunts at the riot police, who responded in kind.
9 If you pay a debt in kind, you pay it in the form of goods or services and not money.
in kind phrase PHR after v, n PHR
...benefits in kind.
