ken
/kɛn/verb, noun
ken is spelled K-E-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Ken, the name). As a verb, ken means “To know, perceive or understand” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ken?
| Letters | 3: K-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 16 times per million words; the 5,025th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ken?
Ken appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Ken, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ken?
- /kɛn/
- /kɪn/
Ken has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ken.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ken
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ken?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ken.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: nek.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ken
- kens present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- kenning participle, present
- kenned participle, past
- kent participle, past
- kenim plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ken mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
ScotlandTo know, perceive or understand.
- 2
ScotlandobsoleteTo discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.
- 3
obsoleteTo give birth, conceive, beget, be born; to develop (as a fetus); to nourish, sustain (as life).
noun
- 1
Range of perception.
- 2
Knowledge, perception, or sight.
- 3
Range of sight.
- 4
UKslangA house, especially a den of thieves.
- 5
Youth or children's group.
- 6
A Japanese unit of length equal to six shakus.
- 7
The tsurugi (type of sword).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ken in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to know, perceive or understand:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ken come from?
Northern English dialects and Scots language 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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).