ken
noun
knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception.
ken
1 American
[ken]
/ kɛn /
noun
-
knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception.
an idea beyond one's ken.
-
range of sight or vision.
verb (used with object)
-
kens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
kenned,
past participle, past
-
kent,
past participle, past (Archaic)
-
kenning
present participle
-
Chiefly Scot.
-
to know, have knowledge of or about, or be acquainted with (a person or thing).
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to understand or perceive (an idea or situation).
-
-
Scots Law. to acknowledge as heir; recognize by a judicial act.
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Archaic. to see; descry; recognize.
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British Dialect, Archaic.
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to declare, acknowledge, or confess (something).
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to teach, direct, or guide (someone).
-
verb (used without object)
-
kens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
kenned,
past participle, past
-
kent,
past participle, past (Archaic)
-
kenning
present participle
Ken
2
American
[ken]
/ kɛn /
noun
Ken.
3
American
abbreviation
ken
1
British
/ kɛn /
noun
verb
-
dialect to know
-
dialect to understand; perceive
-
archaic (tr) to see
Ken.
2
British
abbreviation
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
kensimple
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kenssimple
-
have kennedperfect
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have kentperfect
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has kennedperfect
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has kentperfect
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am kenningprogressive
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are kenningprogressive
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is kenningprogressive
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have been kenningperfect progressive
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has been kenningperfect progressive
Past
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kennedsimple
-
kentsimple
-
had kennedperfect
-
had kentperfect
-
was kenningprogressive
-
were kenningprogressive
-
had been kenningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ken
First recorded before 900; Middle English kennen “to make known, see, know,” Old English cennan “to make known, declare”; cognate with Old Norse kenna, German kennen; akin to can 1, know 1 ( def. )
Explanation
The noun ken means "range of vision or comprehension." If quantum mechanics is beyond your ken, you don't understand it, or it is beyond your scope of knowledge. Ken is rarely used today outside of the phrase, "beyond one's ken." It goes all the way back, however, to Proto Indo-European, the reconstructed ancestor of most European, Near Eastern, and South Asian languages. Coming from the root *gno- "to know," ken has many relatives in modern English such as incognito, cunning, and know itself.
Vocabulary lists containing ken
Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 1
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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:
Sometimes, you just have to accept that you’re talking to an expert who is speaking in terms beyond your ken.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
Having stakes in four of the “Magnificent Seven” Big Tech stocks might not seem like strategy beyond the ken of the ordinary investor.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
Most of which would have been beyond the ken of the most daring 19th-century Scandinavian dramatist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
He was also recruited to civic leadership roles that were beyond the ken of politically-hobbled government bureaucracies.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2024
A Japanese man in uniform was telling them, in Japanese, to go inside the barrack for their ken.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Xcel in December arguing that inspections in the weeks before the fire showed some of the poles were deteriorating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Gen. Ken Paxton, received Trump’s endorsement and defeated four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the primary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
In May, Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, and the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, attended a business conference in the capital of Nuuk without Dans.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2026
In a statement, Harper Adams' vice-chancellor, professor Ken Sloan, said he is "delighted" to see "distinguished people" from Shropshire and specialist industries being recognised.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
At least, Toby was overflowing with ideas, and Ken was carrying most of the stuff.
From "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Ringo chants “Merry Christmas” alternating with “Magic Christian,” and then you hear him say, “It’s just a plug for the film, Ken. Try and keep it on.”
From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2025
"I haven't got a Ken. I think I would be a tough person to live with, so I'm quite happily living on my own with all my stuff," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2023
“I even told that to Ken. He said, ‘Have you ever made a game before?’
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
“Hey, Ken. Sorry, go ahead,” he recalls hearing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2018
This was originated by the Software Support group at Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the user community were both named Ken. :kgbvax: /K-G-B'vaks/ /n./
From The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0, 24 Jul 1996 by Eric S. Raymond
Gunn explains that he wanted to allow himself artistic license, given that Jamie and Claire are well funded and Claire kens the future.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2022
Rebecca read steel cost sheets by sunlight and Shakespeare by candlelight, in 22 years won fame & fortune for herself and Lu kens.
From Time Magazine Archive
The proprietors of the padding kens were on the payroll, as were the managers of "baby farms."
From Time Magazine Archive
“Aye, uncle, and every man kens fine how you have tried. But that dinna alter the truth, that we both desire at heart she may come safe.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
“Aye, it is sad. But he kens the difference yet of right and wrong.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
"You seem to be kenned here," I observed when my breath had caught up with me.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
I kenned the folks were fondest o' such as the Auld Hunder, Mount Pleasant, and that excellent favourite the Bangor.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XX by Alexander Leighton
Though I don't mind at the moment, I maun hae kenned your forebears in days lang syne.
From The Road to Paris by Robert Neilson Stephens
“They were just a’ bairns thegither I thought, but I little kenned.
From The Twa Miss Dawsons by Margaret M. (Margaret Murray) Robertson
A thoughtless word does great ill whiles, but I doubt this has done most ill to his ain cause, if he but kenned it.
From The Twa Miss Dawsons by Margaret M. (Margaret Murray) Robertson
Especially, ask about local varieties, from keswick codlin and worcester pearmain to cornish aromatic and beauty of kent.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2019
Scott alludes to the old song of the Lea Rig,— "Nae herds wi' kent and colley there," etc.
From Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 6 by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart
Naething has happened but what ye a' alang kent very weel about.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 16 by Various
Had I kent that ere I came here, I ne'er had come to thee; 15 For I might hae married the king's daughter, Sae fain she wou'd had me.
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
Au’m Geordie Dowie, the town bauldy, that’s as weel kent as the Provost hissell!”
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 4 by Various
There are things that are wrong wi' the world that we maun all pitch in together to mak' richt—I'm kenning that as well as anyone.
From Between You and Me by Sir Harry Lauder
They reveal an especial difficulty with the kenning, a device which von Wolzogen apparently did not understand, since the entire translation shows an attempt to interpret the kenning hypotactically.
From The Translations of Beowulf A Critical Bibliography by Chauncey Brewster Tinker
Judith: What’s kenning got to do with love?
From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
In kenning of the shore, Thanks to God first given, O you, the happiest men, Be frolic then; Let cannons roar, Frighting the wide heaven.
From Anne Bradstreet and Her Time by Helen Campbell
Draupnir's beautiful blood, a kenning for 'gold rings.'
From Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Translated from the Norse (Icelandic and Faroese) with Introductions and Notes by Nora Kershaw
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.
