ken

Study(16)

/kɛn/

noun 7verb 3name 3

Collocations

ADJ.

beyond, great, last, lovely, tall, washed

The old lighthouse stood tall and beyond the ken of most visitors who passed through town.

VERB + KEN

annoys, became, believe, call, come, make, name, praised

What really annoyed Ken was when people didn't listen to his advice about technology.

KEN + NOUN

friends, goal, it's, johnny, nip, saitou, she's

I didn't ken Johnny was moving to Australia until he told me last week.

PREP.

in, on, on, with

I didn't ken on what he was talking about when he started using all that technical jargon.

ADV.

away, precisely, sometimes

I sometimes wonder what lies beyond the ken of human understanding.

Definitions

verb

To give birth, conceive, beget, be born; to develop (as a fetus); to nourish, sustain (as life).

To the soul this ghostly bread is the learning and the teaching and the understanding in the commandments of God, wherethrough the soul is kenned and lives.

verb

To know, perceive or understand.

It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one.

Johnny: Is your name Maggie? / Maggie: How'd you ken that? / Johnny: It's just a hunch. Are you looking for the, uh, petulant dwarf?

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

'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gate, / He riſes on the toe:

I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of [the telescope] upon the round-top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off.

noun

Range of perception.

I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting go the ladder to swim away beyond my ken.

Knowledge, perception, or sight.

So far is it from the kenne of theſe wretched projectors of ours that beſcraull their Pamflets every day with new formes of government for our Church.

Within our ken / The Nightingale—ah! Love, the Nightingale! / Her tender sweetness made our cheeks grow pale,

Range of sight.

At once as far as Angels kenn he views / The dismal Situation waste and wilde […]

Thesaurus

Synonyms

noun — the range of vision

sight

noun — range of what one can know or understand

cognizance

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Example Bank

To the soul this ghostly bread is the learning and the teaching and the understanding in the commandments of God, wherethrough the soul is kenned and lives.

Wiktionary

It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one.

Wiktionary

Johnny: Is your name Maggie? / Maggie: How'd you ken that? / Johnny: It's just a hunch. Are you looking for the, uh, petulant dwarf?

Wiktionary

Ah thought he wis being harsh, flippant and show-oafy, until ah got sae far in. Now ah ken precisely what the cunt meant.

Wiktionary

I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting go the ladder to swim away beyond my ken.

Wiktionary

So far is it from the kenne of theſe wretched projectors of ours that beſcraull their Pamflets every day with new formes of government for our Church.

Wiktionary

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, ken is marked as obsolete, slang, UK, colloquial. Watch for register when choosing this word.

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