ken

\kɛn\

/\kɛn\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ken” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6,971) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#6,971
frequency rank, French
737
“K” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Niquer (au sens sexuel), faire l’amour.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ken · ken · French

ken · rank #6,971 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,971
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 737
  • PHOTO-FINISH juridiction

Nearest frequency peer: juridiction (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « ken »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « ken » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ken vs km
33% similar
ken vs kg
33% similar
ken vs ki
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ken
PropertyValue
Headwordken
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\kɛn\
Letters3
Frequency rank#6,971
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « ken »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).kense place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « juridiction » (#6,970), « loups » (#6,972), « Jessica » (#6,969). Parmi 737 lemmes en « K », « ken » est au #6,971. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ken is neighbouring look-alikes ("km", "kg", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced \kɛn\. Frequency #6,971 among 737 “K” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for ken, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "km", "kg", "ki", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is ken, spelled K-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Niquer (au sens sexuel), faire l’amour.
  2. 2
    Arnaquer.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ken appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. C’est vrai qu’on bandait à peine mais on voulait déjà ken.
  2. – Allez, insista Steph. Tu l’as ken où ?

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ken"?
"ken" is spelled K-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is \kɛn\.
What does "ken" mean?
As a verb, "ken" means: Niquer (au sens sexuel), faire l’amour.
What words are commonly confused with "ken"?
"ken" is commonly confused with "km", "kg", "ki". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ken"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ken" is \kɛn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ken" come from?
"ken" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ken", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

gel#6,961tri#7,011sun#6,897Sex#6,888

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list