What does ken mean?

Definitions for ken
kɛnken

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word ken.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. cognizance, kennoun

    range of what one can know or understand

    "beyond my ken"

  2. sight, kennoun

    the range of vision

    "out of sight of land"

Wiktionary

  1. kennoun

    Knowledge or perception.

  2. kennoun

    Range of sight.

  3. kenverb

    To know, perceive or understand.

  4. kenverb

    To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.

  5. Kennoun

    A diminutive of the male given name Kenneth.

  6. Etymology: Northern and Scottish dialects from cennan originally “make to know”, causative of cunnan, from kenna, from kannijanan, causative of. Cognate to kennen.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Kennoun

    View; reach of sight.

    Etymology: from the verb.

    Lo! within a ken, our army lies. William Shakespeare, Henry IV.

    When from the mountain top Pisanio shew’d thee,
    Thou wast within a ken. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline.

    It was a hill
    Of paradise the highest; from whose top
    The hemisphere of earth, in clearest ken,
    Stretch’d out to th’ amplest reach of prospect, lay. John Milton.

    He soon
    Saw within ken a glorious angel stand. John Milton.

    Rude, as their ships, was navigation then;
    No useful compass or meridian known:
    Coasting they kept the land within their ken,
    And knew the North but when the pole-star shone. Dryd.

    When we consider the reasons we have to think, that what lies within our ken is but a small part of the universe, we shall discover an huge abyss of ignorance. John Locke.

  2. To Kenverb

    Etymology: cennan, Saxon; kennan, Dutch, to know.

    At once as far as angels ken, he views
    The dismal situation, waste and wild. John Milton, Par. Lost.

    The next day about evening we saw, within a kenning, before us thick clouds, which did put us in some hope of land. Francis Bacon, New Atlantis.

    If thou ken’st from far,
    Among the Pleiads, a new-kindled star;
    ’Tis she that shines in that propitious light. Dryden.

    We ken them from afar, the setting sun
    Plays on their shining arms. Addison.

    ’Tis he, I ken the manner of his gate. William Shakespeare.

    Now plain I ken whence love his rise begun:
    Sure he was born some bloody butcher’s son,
    Bred up in shambles. John Gay, Past.

ChatGPT

  1. ken

    "Ken" primarily means the range of knowledge or perception. It is derived from Middle English and is traditionally used in Scottish English. It can also refer to understanding or awareness. Additionally, "Ken" is used as a male given name in English-speaking cultures.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Kennoun

    a house; esp., one which is a resort for thieves

  2. Ken

    to know; to understand; to take cognizance of

  3. Ken

    to recognize; to descry; to discern

  4. Kenverb

    to look around

  5. Kennoun

    cognizance; view; especially, reach of sight or knowledge

  6. Etymology: [Perh. from kennel.]

Wikidata

  1. Ken

    Ken is a musician and singer-songwriter, best known as guitarist of the Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel. He is also the leader, vocalist and guitarist of Sons of All Pussys and has released a solo album entitled In Physical. While in L'Arc-en-Ciel his name is stylized as ken.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Ken

    ken, v.t. to know: (arch.) to see and recognise at a distance.—n. range of knowledge or sight.—n. Ken′ning (Bacon), range of vision: (Scot.) a small portion.—adj. Ken′speckle (Scot.), conspicuous—also Ken′speck. [Ice. kenna, orig. to cause to know. Cf. can and know.]

  2. Ken

    ken, n. (slang) a house. [Perh. Pers. khān, a caravansary; not conn. with kennel.]

The New Hacker's Dictionary

  1. ken

    1. [Unix] Ken Thompson, principal inventor of Unix. In the early days he used to hand-cut distribution tapes, often with a note that read “Love, ken”. Old-timers still use his first name (sometimes uncapitalized, because it's a login name and mail address) in third-person reference; it is widely understood (on Usenet, in particular) that without a last name ‘Ken’ refers only to Ken Thompson. Similarly, ‘Dennis’ without last name means Dennis Ritchie (and he is often known as dmr). See also demigod, Unix. 2. A flaming user. This was originated by the Software Support group at Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the user community were both named Ken.

Editors Contribution

  1. KEN

    A person is called from barbies named KEN.


    Submitted by rinat on February 10, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. ken

    Song lyrics by ken -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by ken on the Lyrics.com website.

  2. KEN

    What does KEN stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the KEN acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. KEN

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Ken is ranked #40144 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Ken surname appeared 546 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Ken.

    47.4% or 259 total occurrences were Asian.
    34.6% or 189 total occurrences were White.
    9.1% or 50 total occurrences were Black.
    5.4% or 30 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'ken' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #3479

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'ken' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1894

How to pronounce ken?

How to say ken in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of ken in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of ken in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of ken in a Sentence

  1. New York:

    We welcome Texas' resolve to block this anticompetitive merger, and are pleased to announce that Attorney General Ken Paxton will assume a key leadership role in this case, along with (California) Attorney General (Xavier) Becerra and myself.

  2. Burl Barer:

    You can buy Talking Barbie anywhere, but you can't even special order Listening Ken.

  3. Stephen Vladeck:

    Supreme Court's impossible to disagree with Judge Kavanaugh that, in a perfect world, Congress would take the lead when it comes to investigating misconduct and malfeasance by the President, but what Judge Kavanaugh seems to be implying here is not only that Congress should take the lead, but that the Constitution might itself foreclose independent prosecutors like Independent Counsel Ken Starr and Special Counsel Mueller.

  4. Peyton Manning:

    Ken Stabler was a friend of my dad (Archie), what a prince of a guy. What a great leader.

  5. Border Protection:

    The first possibility is precluded by statute( the Deputy DHS secretary is the' first assistant,' and Ken Cuccinelli isn't that). He hasn't been confirmed by the Senate, which knocks out the second possibility. And he wasn't at DHS for any time before Secretary Nielsen resigned, let alone 90 of the 365 days preceding her departure. That ought to be the end of it.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

ken#1#4258#10000

Translations for ken

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"ken." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/ken>.

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1 Comment
  • Trista Stetar
    Trista Stetar
    Ewwww
    LikeReply7 years ago

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an engine that provided medieval artillery used during sieges; a heavy war engine for hurling large stones and other missiles
A arbalist
B volubility
C schlockmeister
D swathing

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