Kind vs.Type

These two have long been in the category of confusing words. No need to worry, though. I will teach you the differences and similarities. C'mon.

What Is Their Main Difference?

Both are used to talk about things or people that have some common characteristics with each other. However, 'kind' usually refers to a particular style or genre of something, whereas, 'type' is more about a group of things/people that go under a bigger category.

Differences

'Kind' mainly refers to a group of things/people that are special in a way. 'Kind' is more common in speech. We can also use 'kind' to refer to something/someone vaguely. Look at the examples below:

This kind of bag is not really suitable for your trip, honey.

You can find all kinds of jewelry in this section.

'Type', on the other hand, mainly refers to different sub-categories of a larger community. Take a look at the following examples:

We have different types of disabilities.

This type of machine literally kills anything that comes its way.

Similarities

We can use either to refer to a group of things/people that share common characteristics. Look at the examples below:

What kind of a pizza is this? It tastes awful.

Here, the item we are point to is vague to us.

It seems that Jake has been working on a special type of project lately.

Are They Interchangeable?

Whenever we are talking about a group of things/people with some common characteristics, we can use them interchangeably, but remember that when 'kind' is used to refer to something vaguely, it cannot be replaced with 'type'. Compare:

✓ I don't, she seemed kind of weird to me.

X I don't, she seemed type of weird to me.

Here, the sentence is wrong because 'kind' does not refer to a particular category.

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