k

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The 11th letter of the modern English alphabet.
2. n. Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter k.
3. n. The 11th in a series.
4. n. Something shaped like the letter K.
5. abbr. karat.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. The eleventh letter and eighth consonant of the English alphabet; the eleventh character also of the Phenician alphabet, from which it has come to us through the Latin and Greek. The comparative scheme of forms, Phenician with its descendants and its claimed originals (see A), is as follows : K was little used in classical Latin, its office having been transferred to C (as is explained under C); hence it is not common in most alphabets derived from the Latin, as Italian and French. It was scarcely used in Anglo-Saxon, the k-sound being regularly represented by c, of which k was only an occasional variant; but it became common in early-Middle English, from the thirteenth century, and gained rapidly in frequency, being needed to represent the k-sound where the c would be ambiguous, owing to the assibilation of c before certain vowels. (See C, ch.) It is now the regular symbol for the sound it denotes in all the Teutonic languages, except English. In the modern English spelling of words of Anglo-Saxon, Romance, or Latin origin it occurs for this sound before e and i, c being used before other vowels and before consonants. In foreign words not of Romance or Latin origin k is the usual initial symbol for the sound. Medially and finally, the sound is denoted in English by ck, as in back, bicker, etc. K has no variety of pronunciation in English, being everywhere the surd or breathed correspondent to the sonant or voiced g (hard). It is called a guttural, or, better, a back-palatal, being the audible result of a breach of contact between the upper surface of the back part of the tongue and the opposite surface of the palate; it is related to g (hard) and ng as t is related to d and n, and p to b and masculine It is, however, now silent before n, in words like knife, knight; and, while itself no longer doubled in English words, it is used with c as a substitute for double c or double k, as in sick, suck. In words belonging to the Teutonic part of our language, the k-sound represents to a large extent a more original g-sound, as in kin, answering to Latin genus), Greek γένος (Sanskrit jana). Owing to the variable English transliteration of Oriental words (Arabic, Hebrew, Hindustani, Persian, Turkish, etc.), k (or c) may represent any one of several different kinds of k-sounds, more precisely represented (as in the etymologies of this dictionary) by k, kh, q, gh, h, etc. Such words are preferably entered under the form nearest the original; but usage is too arbitrary and various to be brought under any rule.
2. In chem., the symbol for potassium (NL. kalium).
3. As an abbreviation: [lowercase] In meteorology, of cumulus (c being used for cirrus).
4. Of king, knight, etc.: as, K. G., Knight of the Garter.
5. Of.
6. In math., k is generally a constant coefficient. It is also a unit vector perpendicular to i and j.
7. As a numeral in medieval use, 250.
8. As an abbreviation: In electricity, of kathode (cathode, which see) and kathodic (cathodic).
9. In mathematics: The Lemoine point in geometry.
10. In mineralogy, the middle letter of the general symbol hkl, given to the face of a crystal in the system of Miller. See symbol, 7.
11. In phys.: The symbol usually employed for moment of inertia. The letter K is used by some writers as a symbol of electrostatic capacity, but C is now almost universally adopted for this quantity.
12. A symbol usually employed to designate magnetic susceptibility.
13. A symbol for absolute temperature.

Wiktionary

1. n. The eleventh letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
2. n. voiceless velar plosive.
3. n. The eleventh letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.
4. n. The first letter of callsigns allocated to American broadcast television and radio stations west of the Mississippi river.
5. n. The ordinal number eleventh, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.
6. n. The eleventh letter of the English alphabet.
7. n. computing A kilobyte (more formally KB or kB).
8. n. colloquial kilometre or kilometres.
9. n. colloquial thousand or thousands.
10. n. The SI measurement value of 1,000
11. abbr. See K
12. abbr. colloquial, text messaging, Internet slang Abbreviation of okay. (Also spelled 'kay.)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. the eleventh letter of the English alphabet, is nonvocal consonant. The form and sound of the letter K are from the Latin, which used the letter but little except in the early period of the language. It came into the Latin from the Greek, which received it from a Phœnician source, the ultimate origin probably being Egyptian. Etymologically K is most nearly related to c, g, h (which see).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a unit of information equal to 1024 bytes
2. adj. denoting a quantity consisting of 1,000 items or units
3. n. a light soft silver-white metallic element of the alkali metal group; oxidizes rapidly in air and reacts violently with water; is abundant in nature in combined forms occurring in sea water and in carnallite and kainite and sylvite
4. n. a unit of information equal to 1000 bytes
5. n. the basic unit of thermodynamic temperature adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites
6. n. the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100
7. n. the 11th letter of the Roman alphabet
8. n. street names for ketamine