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
-
kenssimple
-
have kennedperfect
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have kentperfect
-
has kennedperfect
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has kentperfect
-
am kenningprogressive
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are kenningprogressive
-
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
His tableaux don’t always succeed, but when they do, their strangeness hints at things beyond ordinary ken.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
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
‘But at the western edge of Mirkwood the trail turned away. It wandered off southwards and passed out of the Wood-elves’ ken, and was lost.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Senate race, both Ken Paxton and James Talarico have been campaigning around the state, meeting voters everywhere from restaurants to music halls as they’ve pitched their political visions.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
Ken Skates said he sought help after his symptoms were at their most severe while studying at the University of Cambridge and he was eventually diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and depression.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Aschenbrenner sold the bulk of Situational’s stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s investment firm Citadel after suffering deep losses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Social realist dramas aren’t new and they include award-winning landmarks by Ken Loach and Chloé Zhao.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The spy, Ken Seacrest, loaded his two children into a brown-and-tan Volkswagen bus.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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
"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, 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
“Aye, it is sad. But he kens the difference yet of right and wrong.”
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
I almost think she kenned what was coming.”
From The Twa Miss Dawsons by Margaret M. (Margaret Murray) Robertson
I kenned the folks were fondest o' such as the Auld Hunder, Mount Pleasant, and that excellent favourite the Bangor.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XX by Alexander Leighton
Ye kenned na whether he laughed or frowned, or promised or threatened.
From Trevethlan: (Vol 2 of 3) A Cornish Story. by William Davy Watson
They will ne'er feel the loss o' the cotton-mill, and you and I ne'er kenned the guid o't.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 12 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
"Tuts, lassie, yer faither would ha' kent," said Mrs. Veitch.
From The Setons by O. Douglas
And whan he came to Benachie,65 Did neither chap nor ca'; Sae well's he kent auld Johnny there, Three feet abeen them a'.
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV by Various
Clatten com up—i' fun iv his way o' 't—gat hod o' me afooar I kent reetly whoar I was, an' flang me doon like a havver sheaf.
From Wrestling and Wrestlers: Biographical Sketches of Celebrated Athletes of the Northern Ring; to Which is Added Notes on Bull and Badger Baiting by Sidney Gilpin
I wadna hae kent ye; you were but a bit gilpie then.
From From Squire to Squatter A Tale of the Old Land and the New by Gordon Stables
There are things that are wrong wi' the world that we maun all pitch in together to mak' richt—I'm kenning that as well as anyone.
From Between You and Me by Sir Harry Lauder
You're waur than her, Nanny," Sanders said roughly, "for you hae twa reasons for kenning better.
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
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
He was the first to recognize the significance of kenning, metaphor, and compound.
From The Translations of Beowulf A Critical Bibliography by Chauncey Brewster Tinker
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.
