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).
-
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.
-
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
-
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
When Mani audited a course on theoretical physics, it was generally assumed that the material would be "beyond her ken", Sur observes.
From BBC ● Dec. 7, 2023
"That is not me master. I don't ken that wight, and I'm as glad of it."
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
This slight adjustment, suggested by Ken Tropin, chairman of the firm which he founded in 1994, had a positive contribution in a few asset classes.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
"With... immigrant labor losing their status to work in the US, that restriction in labor supply is causing subdued labor growth now for health care," said Ken Kim, senior economist at KPMG.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Republican incumbents Ken Calvert and Young Kim are facing off to keep their seats in Congress and represent California’s 40th District.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Chief executive Ken Mackness said: "The events we saw earlier this year demonstrated how quickly international developments can affect wholesale energy markets."
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Ken was pretty respectful about the whole thing, too.
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
A native of Louisville, Ken., he made a major jump up the Dodgers’ farm system last year, when he progressed from high A to triple A while batting .260 across three minor-league levels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 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
“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, 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
"Ah, Mary," persevered her undaunted wooer, "ye ken brawly what I mean; but you surely never kenned what it was to be in love, or ye wad never jeer a body that way."
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 15 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
"Oh, Mary, if ye only kenned what a heart I have, and how aften I've lookit at you when I never spake a word, ye wad never bid me do that."
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 15 by Various
Especially, ask about local varieties, from keswick codlin and worcester pearmain to cornish aromatic and beauty of kent.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2019
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
He keeps me well by sheer moral suasion. kent comes out of his room and is off downstairs.
From Three Plays by Granville-Barker The Marrying of Ann Leete; The Voysey Inheritance; Waste by Harley Granville-Barker
The gudewife, she kent how I felt, and when the Lord took her hame the hills seemed to ca' more and more on me.
From The Bushranger's Secret by Mrs. Henry Clarke
"Gin I had kent yestreen, yestreen, What I ken weel the day, 205 I shou'd hae taen your fu' fause heart, Gien you a heart o' clay."
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
“There’s things it’s best to put off kenning as lang as we can.”
From The Little Minister 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
Thorkelin knew nothing of the peculiar style of Old English poetry; he could recognize neither kenning, metaphor, nor compound.
From The Translations of Beowulf A Critical Bibliography by Chauncey Brewster Tinker
Bell: And so say I: Though, kenning only Peter, I’m inclined To fancy Jim may be the better man.
From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
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.
