Word of the Day May 5, 2024 [archive]

Princeton's WordNet

1. cognizance, ken(noun)

   range of what one can know or understand

   "beyond my ken"

2. sight, ken(noun)

   the range of vision

   "out of sight of land"

Wiktionary

1. ken(Noun)

   Knowledge or perception.

2. ken(Noun)

   Range of sight.

3. ken(Verb)

   To know, perceive or understand.

4. ken(Verb)

   To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.

5. Ken(ProperNoun)

   A diminutive of the male given name Kenneth.

Origin: Northern and Scottish dialects from cennan originally “make to know”, causative of cunnan, from kenna, from kannijanan, causative of. Cognate to kennen.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

1. Ken(n.s.)

   View; reach of sight.

   Lo! within a ken, our army lies. William Shakespeare, Henry IV.

   When from the mountain top Pisanio shew’d thee,
   Thou wast within a ken. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline.

   It was a hill
   Of paradise the highest; from whose top
   The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken,
   Stretch’d out to th’ amplest reach of prospect, lay. John Milton.

   He soon
   Saw within ken a glorious angel stand. John Milton.

   Rude, as their ships, was navigation then;
   No useful compass or meridian known:
   Coasting they kept the land within their ken,
   And knew the North but when the pole-star shone. Dryd.

   When we consider the reasons we have to think, that what lies within our ken is but a small part of the universe, we shall discover an huge abyss of ignorance. John Locke.

2. To Ken(v.a.)

   1. To see at a distance; to descry.

   At once as far as angels ken, he views
   The dismal situation, waste and wild. John Milton, Par. Lost.

   The next day about evening we saw, within a kenning, before us thick clouds, which did put us in some hope of land. Francis Bacon, New Atlantis.

   If thou ken’st from far,
   Among the Pleiads, a new-kindled star;
   ’Tis she that shines in that propitious light. Dryden.

   We ken them from afar, the setting sun
   Plays on their shining arms. Addison.

   2. To know.

   ’Tis he, I ken the manner of his gate. William Shakespeare.

   Now plain I ken whence love his rise begun:
   Sure he was born some bloody butcher’s son,
   Bred up in shambles. John Gay, Past.

Origin: cennan, Saxon; kennan, Dutch, to know.

Webster Dictionary

1. Ken(noun)

   a house; esp., one which is a resort for thieves

2. Ken

   to know; to understand; to take cognizance of

3. Ken

   to recognize; to descry; to discern

4. Ken(verb)

   to look around

5. Ken(noun)

   cognizance; view; especially, reach of sight or knowledge

Origin: [Perh. from kennel.]

Wikidata

1. Ken

   Ken is a musician and singer-songwriter, best known as guitarist of the Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel. He is also the leader, vocalist and guitarist of Sons of All Pussys and has released a solo album entitled In Physical. While in L'Arc-en-Ciel his name is stylized as ken.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

1. Ken

   ken, v.t. to know: (arch.) to see and recognise at a distance.—n. range of knowledge or sight.—n. Ken′ning (Bacon), range of vision: (Scot.) a small portion.—adj. Ken′speckle (Scot.), conspicuous—also Ken′speck. [Ice. kenna, orig. to cause to know. Cf. can and know.]

2. Ken

   ken, n. (slang) a house. [Perh. Pers. khān, a caravansary; not conn. with kennel.]

The New Hacker's Dictionary

1. ken

   1. [Unix] Ken Thompson, principal inventor of Unix. In the early days he used to hand-cut distribution tapes, often with a note that read “Love, ken”. Old-timers still use his first name (sometimes uncapitalized, because it's a login name and mail address) in third-person reference; it is widely understood (on Usenet, in particular) that without a last name ‘Ken’ refers only to Ken Thompson. Similarly, ‘Dennis’ without last name means Dennis Ritchie (and he is often known as dmr). See also demigod, Unix. 2. A flaming user. This was originated by the Software Support group at Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the user community were both named Ken.

Editors Contribution

1. KEN

   A person is called from barbies named KEN.

Suggested Resources

1. ken

   Song lyrics by ken -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by ken on the Lyrics.com website.

2. KEN

   What does KEN stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the KEN acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

1. KEN

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Ken is ranked #40144 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Ken surname appeared 546 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Ken.
   
   47.4% or 259 total occurrences were Asian.
   34.6% or 189 total occurrences were White.
   9.1% or 50 total occurrences were Black.
   5.4% or 30 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.

Matched Categories

1. • Compass
   • Knowing

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'ken' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #3479

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'ken' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1894

How to pronounce ken?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say ken in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of ken in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of ken in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of ken in a Sentence

1. Jeb Bush:

   I'm Jeb Bush and I'm proud of my family's contributions to Texas and America. But this race isn't about my last name, it's about Ken Paxton's crimes.

2. Ken Paxton:

   ( Attorney General Ken Paxton) wants to create a narrative of widespread voter fraud. We don't think this is a case that should gotten to this point.

3. Ken Cheung:

   In light of China-US tensions, the [ renminbi ] market movement hinges on the Ken Cheung election outcome.

4. Mark Sedwill:

   Ken McCallum's expertise and leadership will be crucial to ensuring that the Security Service remains agile and creative in the face of new and emerging threats to our security.

5. Terry Bradshaw:

   I made an insensitive remark today about Ken Jeong, who I've known for some time, i've spoken to Ken Jeong about the importance of cultural respect and apologized for my offensive comments. I would like to also apologize to the Asian-American community for my insensitivity.

• كينArabic
• kennen, kenGerman
• kenEsperanto
• conocer, conocidoSpanish
• کنPersian
• näkyvyysFinnish
• kenFrench
• aithnighIrish
• केनHindi
• kenIndonesian
• comprendere, comprensione, intendere, capireItalian
• קןHebrew
• ケンJapanese
• ಕೆನ್Kannada
• 시야Korean
• KenLatin
• gezichtskringDutch
• kenNorwegian
• rozpoznaćPolish
• kenPortuguese
• кругозор, знатьRussian
• kenSwedish
• கென்Tamil
• kenTurkish
• kenYiddish
• 肯Chinese