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
-
kenssimple
-
have kennedperfect
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have kentperfect
-
has kennedperfect
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has kentperfect
-
am kenningprogressive
-
are kenningprogressive
-
is kenningprogressive
-
have been kenningperfect progressive
-
has been kenningperfect progressive
Past
-
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:
She paid sharpest attention to those in her ken, broadly defined as America, where she had the truest sense of need and sharpest eye for what would help.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
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
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
“Ah ken what t’ dooo,” drawled Jamie, the Pobble Who Has No Toes, dragging out his vowels to make them exaggeratedly Scots.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Most of the $168 million he contributed to the Senate Leadership Fund has served to shore up Ken Paxton, the GOP nominee for Senate in Texas, who is locked in a tight race with Talarico.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2026
Much of the public reaction, however, centered around how the piece looked less like the three-time NBA champion and more like Laurence Fishburne, Kelsey Grammer, Ken Norton Jr. and others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
The land grab puts the property in the same league as Florida mega-compounds owned by Ken Griffin and Jeff Bezos, underscoring the flood of extreme wealth pouring into the Gulf Coast enclave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, said the harsher reactions showed that “expectations were through the roof and a lot was already priced in.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 25, 2026
Everybody took sides and went home mad; and for a day or two Toby and Ken went back to playing basketball after school.
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
"Make it in pen and ink or pencil, Ken. and I'm sure it will be beautiful."
From Aunt Jane's Nieces by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
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
The proprietors of the padding kens were on the payroll, as were the managers of "baby farms."
From Time Magazine Archive
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
“Aye, it is sad. But he kens the difference yet of right and wrong.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
“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
"You seem to be kenned here," I observed when my breath had caught up with me.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
When I was a youth, also, I dinna ken if there was a person in the village, save the minister, kenned what a newspaper was.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 15 by Various
Ay, I kenned ye wad wonder at it.
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 4 by Various
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
Especially, ask about local varieties, from keswick codlin and worcester pearmain to cornish aromatic and beauty of kent.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2019
An I had kent what I ken now,25 I'd never crosst the water Tay, But stayed still at Athole's gates;— He would have made me his lady gay.
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV by Various
It was well kent he was no fitting for me.
From Discipline by Mary Brunton
Behind her, on a sofa between the windows, is walter kent.
From Three Plays by Granville-Barker The Marrying of Ann Leete; The Voysey Inheritance; Waste by Harley Granville-Barker
At about eight o'clock, Lamar and I sallied out to find Mrs. Hazlehurst's house in Broadway; amid music from clarionet, violin, and kent bugle.
From The Kentuckian in New-York, Volume I (of 2) or, The Adventures of Three Southerns by William Alexander Caruthers
But at last a tame raven, kenning him as he put forth his head, gave him such a severe stroke with his horny beak as put out one eye.
From The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White
Ay, ay; thou is a cunning lad for kenning the hours of bargaining.
From Chronicles of the Canongate by Sir Walter Scott
Let her and him gang to the Cuttle Well, as Aaron and me went, kenning no guile and thinking none, and with their arms round one another's waists.
From Sentimental Tommy The Story of His Boyhood by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
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
"An' fat the better wad you be for the kenning o' this, man?" said he.
From The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
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