ken
- knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception: an idea beyond one's ken.
- range of sight or vision.
- Chiefly Scot.
- to know, have knowledge of or about, or be acquainted with (a person or thing).
- to understand or perceive (an idea or situation).
- Scots Law. to acknowledge as heir; recognize by a judicial act.
- Archaic. to see; descry; recognize.
- British Dialect Archaic.
- to declare, acknowledge, or confess (something).
- to teach, direct, or guide (someone).
- British Dialect.
- to have knowledge of something.
- to understand.
Origin of ken
Ken
Ken.
Related Words for ken
impression, concept, consciousness, insight, idea, attitude, comprehension, sight, sense, recognition, knowledge, acumen, awareness, picture, attention, understanding, judgment, apprehension, light, cognizanceExamples from the Web for ken
Contemporary Examples of ken
Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson explained his decision to impanel a grand jury in a statement released Friday.
You have mentioned in interview that Dale Eaglesham and Ken Lashley are joining you on the new Secret Six.
So the plan is for Ken to draw an arc with Dale doing covers, and then Dale does an arc with Ken doing covers.
In 1978, for instance, Hockney was introduced to a new printing method by the famed printer Ken Tyler.
Ken Russell, the now sadly deceased British film director, told me he considered Jarman a visionary.
Historical Examples of ken
Life's naked brutalities had theretofore been largely out of his ken.
The Black BagLouis Joseph Vance
It maks my hert sair to ken 'at no guid will your hert get o' his.
Heather and SnowGeorge MacDonald
I'm thinkin we dee mair things in faith than we ken—but no eneuch!
Salted With FireGeorge MacDonald
For I hae seen him noo, and ken him noo—the houp o' glory in my hert and my life!
Salted With FireGeorge MacDonald
Ye see I ken sae muckle they ken naething aboot, or they wudna be as they are!
Heather and SnowGeorge MacDonald
ken
- range of knowledge or perception (esp in the phrases beyond or in one's ken)
- Scot and Northern English dialect to know
- Scot and Northern English dialect to understand; perceive
- (tr) archaic to see
Word Origin for ken
Ken.
- Kentucky
Word Origin and History for ken
"to know," Scottish dialect, from Old English cennan "make known, declare, acknowledge" (in late Old English also "to know"), originally "make to know," causative of cunnan "to become acquainted with, to know" (see can (v.)). Cognate with German kennen, Danish kjende, Swedish känna. Related: Kenned; kenning.
"house where thieves meet," 1560s, vagabonds' slang, probably a shortening of kennel.
"range of sight," 1580s, a nautical abbreviation of kenning.