Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Perception; understanding: complex issues well beyond our ken.
- n. Range of vision.
- n. View; sight.
- v. To know (a person or thing).
- v. To recognize.
- v. To have knowledge or an understanding.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To show; declare; teach; point out; tell.
- To see; descry; recognize.
- To lie within sight of; have a view of.
- To know; understand; take cognizance of.
- In Scots law, to acknowledge or recognize by a judicial act: as, to ken a widow to her terce (that is, to recognize or decree by a judicial act the right of a widow to the life-rent of her share of her deceased husband's lands). See terce.
- To look around; gain knowledge by sight; discern.
- n. Cognizance; physical or intellectual view; especially, reach of sight or knowledge.
- To beget; bring forth.
- To breed; hatch out.
- A dialectal variant of kine, plural of cow.
- n. A churn.
- n. A place where low or disreputable characters lodge or meet: as, a padding-ken (a lodging-house for tramps); a sport ing-ken
- n. A prefecture or territorial division of Japan, governed by a kenrei. Japan is now divided into 3 fu and about 40 ken.
- n. A Japanese measure of length, equal to 71½ English inches.
- n. The straight two-edged Japanese sword.
- n. An abbreviation of Kentueky.
Wiktionary
- n. Knowledge or perception.
- n. nautical Range of sight.
- v. transitive To know, perceive or understand.
- v. obsolete To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Slang, Eng. A house; esp., one which is a resort for thieves.
- v. Archaic or Scot. To know; to understand; to take cognizance of.
- v. Archaic or Scot. To recognize; to descry; to discern.
- v. obsolete To look around.
- n. Cognizance; view; especially, reach of sight or knowledge.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the range of vision
- n. range of what one can know or understand
Etymologies
- Northern and Scottish dialects from Old English cennan ("make known, declare, acknowledge") originally “make to know”, causative of cunnan ("to become acquainted with, to know"), from Old Norse kenna ("know, perceive"), from Proto-Germanic *kannijanan, causative of *kunnanan (“be able”). Cognate to German kennen ("to know, be acquainted with someone/something"). (Wiktionary)
- From Middle English kennen (influenced by Old Norse kenna, to know), from Old English cennan, to declare; see gnō- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's one part of London where all the Irish live -- at least all the worst of them -- and there they hatch their villainies and speak this tongue; it is that which keeps them together and makes them dangerous: I was once sent there to seize a couple of deserters -- Irish -- who had taken refuge amongst their companions; we found them in what was in my time called a ken, that is a house where only thieves and desperadoes are to be found.”
“There's one part of London where all the Irish live -- at least all the worst of them -- and there they hatch their villanies to speak this tongue; it is that which keeps them together and makes them dangerous: I was once sent there to seize a couple of deserters -- Irish -- who had taken refuge amongst their companions; we found them in what was in my time called a ken, that is, a house where only thieves and desperadoes are to be found.”
“There's one part of London where all the Irish live -- at least all the worst of them -- and there they hatch their villanies and speak this tongue; it is that which keeps them together and makes them dangerous: I was once sent there to seize a couple of deserters -- Irish -- who had taken refuge amongst their companions; we found them in what was in my time called a ken, that is a house where only thieves and desperadoes are to be found.”
Lavengro The Scholar - The Gypsy - The Priest, Vol. 1 (of 2)
“Next, there'll be another story on the Tea Party, Todd and Imelda Palin ..... ken”
“I am not sure why ken is propagandizing that the Democratic party is a shinking ship.”
“Soon as a guest comes within ken of a blue nose, the delightful operations commence.”
Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick, North America
“Enoch spoke of Christ's second coming as within ken, Behold, the Lord cometh, Jude 14.”
“And as this destruction is near and within ken, so it is sure.”
“May I suggest "Mission Accomplished" for the book title ken”
“Nor was it only her own kith and kin, but all who came within her ken were apt to find themselves the more or less surprised recipients of gifts.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ken’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN - 3-letter words of the pattern CVC
With the exception of abbreviations and mosaic words all types of words (proper names, past tense of verbs, etc.) are allowed.
for, was, not, his, but, has, had, can, her, him, new, now and 339 more...
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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People commonly known by their first ...
rembrandt, galileo, dante, beck, jewel, madonna, cher, saddam, elvis, usain, vangelis, michelangelo and 103 more...
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Boys Names
List of Boys names
danny, daniel, bobby, robert, chris, christopher, dan, bob, rob, jeff, jeffery, jeffrey and 105 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Scrabble Names
Given names that were acceptable for play the last time I checked the OWL.
kris, ray, barb, morris, kat, mark, maria, erica, marge, mason, hunter, hazel and 168 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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EN-HU - homographs
Words that are spelt the same way in English and in Hungarian but have independent origins and mean something entirely different. Not included are proper names (Anya, Ken, Pete - Kiss, Soma, Vince,...
ember, hat, eleven, tag, bolt, far, comb, barack, kit, bent, kin, tan and 41 more...
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Bright Folk
Some words I come across in my legal studies, though not really legal jargon. And the usage doesn't shout, "hey, I think I'm smart", just simply, "this is what applies in this context."
verbose, inter alia, ostentatious, usurp, presumptuous, anachronistic, unfettered, sine qua non, amenable, subversive, irreducible, penumbra and 28 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 173 more...
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Vocab [General]
No particular specification to this list.
philology, etymology, atavistic, proscribe, inchoate, vulgate, abstruse, agnate, anodize, anthropomorphic, assiduous, augur and 89 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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amanlikekennyken's list
My Favourite Words - Word!
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ken.
gulyasrobi "ken" in Hungarian means: to spread (by a knife) Aug 7, 2012
ruzuzu Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken
From "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" by John Keats
Sep 6, 2010
Prolagus Dog in Japanese. Feb 5, 2010
smeggo I like it better verbed. Oct 15, 2008
yarb We kenned the old cripple, immersed in an elbow chair, with a pillow under his head, cushions under his arms, and his legs supported on a large stool, stuffed with down.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 2 ch. 1 Sep 13, 2008
yarb Yes, I am aware of the person of whom you speak. Feb 27, 2008
misterpolly Do you ken John Peel? Feb 27, 2008
glosseme Ah dinnae ken, hen!
translated for Sassenachs as "I'm terribly afraid I don't know, dearest!" Jun 11, 2007