What does kino mean?
Kino is an unusual word with two established senses. In modern British English, it most often means a cinema or movie theater, as in “going to the kino,” and it carries an informal, conversational quality. The same word also denotes a reddish-brown gum or resin obtained from kino trees. This resin was traditionally used in medicine and in the tanning of leather, but the sense is now mainly historical or specialized. The cinema meaning entered English through German Kino, a shortened form of a word associated with motion pictures and ultimately connected with the Greek root for movement. The older resin meaning came through a different route, from Spanish usage based on an Indigenous South American term. As a result, kino can evoke both modern entertainment and the history of botanical medicines.
nounKino means a cinema or movie theater, especially in informal British usage. It can also mean a reddish-brown gum or resin obtained from kino trees and formerly used in medicine and tanning.
- A cinema or movie theater, especially in informal British usage.
- A reddish-brown gum or resin obtained from certain trees, particularly kino trees, formerly used medicinally and in tanning.
"We went to the kino to see a new film."
"The whole family went to the kino on Saturday afternoon."
"The pharmacist explained the use of kino resin in traditional medicine."
The plural is uncommon; kino is normally used as a singular noun for a theater and as a mass noun for the resin.
"There are two kinos in the town center."
Kino has a double life: it can name a place for watching films or the reddish resin once prized as a medicine.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does kino come from?
The cinema sense of kino was borrowed in the early 20th century from German Kino, itself a shortened form of Kinematograph; the underlying Greek elements refer to movement and the recording or describing of movement. This is the same broad etymological family as cinema, cinematograph, kinetic, and kinetics. The resin sense is older and entered English through Spanish, whose quino derives from an Indigenous South American term. The two senses consequently have separate histories despite sharing the modern English spelling.
How kino is actually used
In its sense meaning a movie theater, kino is informal and now sounds old-fashioned to many British speakers, though it remains readily understood. The resin sense is technical or historical and is not a usual everyday use of the word.
Easily confused with kino
Kino is an informal, chiefly British term for a cinema, whereas cinema is standard in both British and American English.
Keno is a gambling game in which numbers are drawn, while kino normally means a cinema or, less commonly, a tree resin.