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.
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Gonzales-Torres, 31, previously worked as a part-time counselor for formerly incarcerated Pasadena City College students, interned in Mayor Karen Bass’s administration and volunteered on the Metro Public Safety Advisory Committee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
Karen knows how difficult it is to quit.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
Karen is a recovery worker with the group Liv4Lali.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
Both Mayor Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman champion the cause of housing affordability.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Her name was Karen and Karen was kind in the way that people can be, when kindness doesn’t cost them anything.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
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
I've also had experiences with what we are now calling Karens.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2023
“We want to harness the power of Karens for good.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 26, 2022
She was a caricature of a matriarch, but brought complexity and nuance to a type that is usually relegated to sketch comedy, two-dimensional walk-ons or viral videos of monstrous Karens.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2022
It is admitted by the missionaries themselves that Christianity has progressed very slowly among the Burmese in comparison with the rapid progress made amongst the Karens.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various
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