kid
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A child, adolescent, or a young adult.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kidIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɪd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
informal
A child, adolescent, or (loosely) a young adult.
informal
One's son or daughter, regardless of age.
in the vocative
Used as a form of address for a child, teenager or young adult.
Soft smooth leather from the hide of a young goat
uncountable
The meat of a young goat.
A young person of either sex
verb
intransitive
Of a goat: to give birth.
reflexive
To deceive oneself by having unrealistic expectations.
transitivecolloquial
To deceive or dupe as a joke.
transitivecolloquial
To mock or make a fool of (someone) in a playful way.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A child, adolescent, or (loosely) a young adult.
Used this way, kid is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home and everyday conversation contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A glove made of fine soft leather (as kidskin).
United States baseball player (born in 1931).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.