Karen
1 Americannoun
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Karens,
plural
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Karen
plural
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a group of people of eastern and southern Myanmar (Burma).
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one of these people.
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the language of the Karen, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan family.
adjective
noun
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Also Karin a first name, form of Katherine.
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Informal: Disparaging.
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a white, usually middle-class woman who is rude, demanding, and aggressive toward other people, particularly customer service workers.
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a person acting in an aggressive, entitled, rude way.
He went full Karen on the poor store manager and threatened to get her fired.
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noun
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a member of a Thai people of Myanmar
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the language of this people, probably related to Thai and belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Retirees Stephen and Karen Kreider Yoder share how they have kept rising prices from ruining their retirement by using their time to save money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Mayor Karen Bass’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is in the fight of her political life, facing a vigorous challenge from City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a savvy campaigner who was until recently a close ally.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
UCU branch president Karen Lorimer said staff wanted to be welcoming new and returning students but the refusal to rule out using compulsory redundancies left them with no alternative but to strike.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Then he said, “To Karen, from Santa Claus.”
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
On one side are so-called trail Karens, who monitor online web cameras and question why the forest service isn’t ticketing “ignorant and selfish” rule breakers who are hiking the mountain anyway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2024
Another thing we wanted to do was if we are taking about Karens or Stop and Frisk, that we have to show multiple, multiple, multiple instances.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2023
The Karens for Hire lightbulb went off in early 2022.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 26, 2022
The video, which has been dubbed "Karens in the Air," was posted on TikTok by pop musician Jawny.
From Fox News ● Oct. 18, 2021
Judson and his heroic wife did noble work among the Karens and the Burmans.
From Church History, Vol. 3 of 3 by J. H. Kurtz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
