Also spelled kinsfolk
noun
Freq #50323
Meanings
-
1
noun
old-fashioned or regional: one's relatives or family considered collectively
Most of her kinfolk still live in the mountain town where she was born.
-
2
noun
people regarded as family because of a close bond, shared identity, or common origin
The displaced families treated their new neighbors as kinfolk.
Thesaurus
Etymology
A compound of kin + folk. Kin descends from Old English cynn ("family, race, kind"), while folk comes from Old English folc ("people"). The established variant kinsfolk preserves an added linking -s-.