ken

[ken]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ken ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception: an idea beyond one's ken.

range of sight or vision.

verb (used with object), kenned or kent, ken·ning.

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).

verb (used without object), kenned or kent, ken·ning.

British Dialect.

to have knowledge of something.
to understand.

Origin of ken

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 can¹

Can be confusedken kin

Ken

[ken]

noun

a male given name, form of Kendall or Kenneth.

Ken.

Kentucky.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for ken

impression, concept, consciousness, insight, idea, attitude, comprehension, sight, sense, recognition, knowledge, acumen, awareness, picture, attention, understanding, judgment, apprehension, light, cognizance

Examples 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.
New York's Next Killer-Cop Grand Jury
Jacob Siegel
December 6, 2014
You have mentioned in interview that Dale Eaglesham and Ken Lashley are joining you on the new Secret Six.
Gail Simone’s Bisexual Catman and the ‘Secret Six’
Rich Goldstein
December 6, 2014
So the plan is for Ken to draw an arc with Dale doing covers, and then Dale does an arc with Ken doing covers.
Gail Simone’s Bisexual Catman and the ‘Secret Six’
Rich Goldstein
December 6, 2014
In 1978, for instance, Hockney was introduced to a new printing method by the famed printer Ken Tyler.
The Many Lives of Artist David Hockney
William O’Connor
November 23, 2014
Ken Russell, the now sadly deceased British film director, told me he considered Jarman a visionary.
The Queer Genius of Film Director Derek Jarman
Tim Teeman
November 1, 2014

Historical Examples of ken

Life's naked brutalities had theretofore been largely out of his ken.
The Black Bag
Louis Joseph Vance
It maks my hert sair to ken 'at no guid will your hert get o' his.
Heather and Snow
George MacDonald
I'm thinkin we dee mair things in faith than we ken—but no eneuch!
Salted With Fire
George MacDonald
For I hae seen him noo, and ken him noo—the houp o' glory in my hert and my life!
Salted With Fire
George MacDonald
Ye see I ken sae muckle they ken naething aboot, or they wudna be as they are!
Heather and Snow
George MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for ken

ken

noun

range of knowledge or perception (esp in the phrases beyond or in one's ken)

verb kens, kenning, kenned or kent (kɛnt)

Scot and Northern English dialect to know

Scot and Northern English dialect to understand; perceive

(tr) archaic to see

Word Origin for ken

Old English cennan; related to Old Norse kenna to perceive, Old High German kennen to make known; see can 1

Ken.

abbreviation for

Kentucky

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

n.2

"house where thieves meet," 1560s, vagabonds' slang, probably a shortening of kennel.

n.1

"range of sight," 1580s, a nautical abbreviation of kenning.