next of kin

1. 1.

   the person who is (or persons who are) most closely related to a given person

   Broaderrelative

Questions about next of kin

What does next of kin mean?

next of kin means "the person who is (or persons who are) most closely related to a given person".

Is next of kin a common word?

next of kin is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.