ken

Meaning

Verb

1. To know, perceive or understand.
2. (obsolete) To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.

Noun

1. Knowledge, perception, or sight.
2. Range of sight.

Noun

A house, especially a den of thieves.

Noun

Youth or children's group.

Noun

A Japanese unit of length equal to six shakus.

Noun

The tsurugi (type of sword).

Concepts

ken

knowledge

cognizance

awareness

sight

competency

command

competence

consciousness

learning

lucidity

proficiency

realization

skill

understanding

know

acquaintance

cognition

sense

ail

annoy

badger

bedevil

bother

derange

discommode

disturb

fret

grate on

harass

heckle

incommode

inconvenience

infest

irk

jar on

pester

pother

trouble

outlook

prospect

scenery

scope

view

visibility

apprehension

comprehension

discernment

feeling

grasp

grip

hold

intellect

intuitive feeling

penetration

perception

savvy

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kɛn/

Etymology

Northern and Scottish dialects from Middle English kennen, from Old English cennan (“make known, declare, acknowledge”) originally “to make known”, causative of cunnan (“to become acquainted with, to know”), from Proto-West Germanic *kannijan, from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną, causative of *kunnaną (“be able”), from which comes the verb can.
Cognate with West Frisian kenne (“to know; recognise”), Dutch kennen (“to know”), German kennen (“to know, be acquainted with someone/something”), Norwegian Bokmål kjenne, Norwegian Nynorsk kjenna, Old Norse kenna (“to know, perceive”), Swedish känna (“to know, feel”), Danish kende (“to know”). See also: can, con.
The noun meaning “range of sight” is a nautical abbreviation of present participle kenning.