K

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: k and Appendix:Variations of "k"
LetterK.svg
K U+004B, K
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K
← J
[U+004A] 		Basic Latin L →
[U+004C]
U+212A.svg
K U+212A, K
KELVIN SIGN
← ℩
[U+2129] 		Letterlike Symbols Å →
[U+212B]
Ｋ U+FF2B, Ｋ
FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K
← Ｊ
[U+FF2A] 		Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Ｌ →
[U+FF2C]

Translingual[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

From the Etruscan letter 𐌊 (k, “ka”), from the Ancient Greek letter Κ (K, “kappa”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤊‎ (k, “kap”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓂧.

Letter[edit]

K (lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

See also[edit]

Symbol[edit]

K

  1. (chemistry) Symbol for potassium (Latin kalium).
  2. Symbol for kelvin, the SI unit of thermodynamic temperature. Specifically (U+212A version)
  3. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for lysine.
  4. (geology) Symbol for hydraulic conductivity.
  5. Thousand.
    5k = 5,000
  6. (radio slang) over, waiting for reply
  7. (linguistics) A wildcard for a velar consonant

Gallery[edit]

  • Letter styles
  • Capital and lowercase versions of K, in normal and italic type

    Capital and lowercase versions of K, in normal and italic type

  • Uppercase and lowercase K in Fraktur

    Uppercase and lowercase K in Fraktur

See also[edit]

Other representations of K:

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /keɪ/, [kʰeɪ]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k, plural Ks or K's)

  1. The eleventh letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.
    • 1876, "C" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 616:
      The symbol K, however, was not entirely lost; it is found irregularly in inscriptions of all dates down to the times of the empire, and regularly as an initial abbreviation of Kalendæ, Karthago, Kæso (the proper name).
See also[edit]

Number[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The ordinal number eleventh, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2[edit]

Noun[edit]

K (plural Ks)

  1. (law, informal) Abbreviation of contract.
  2. (education, US) Abbreviation of kindergarten.
    "K-8" is Kindergarten through eighth grade.
  3. (often computing) Abbreviation of kilo-, 1,024.
  4. (computing) A single character message used as an acknowledgement (ACK), meaning "previous message received and understood."
  5. (Morse code) Abbreviation of go ahead, over, an indication that a message is complete and a reply is awaited.
  6. (baseball) Abbreviation of strikeout.
  7. (card games, chess) Abbreviation of king.
  8. (biology) Abbreviation of carrying capacity.
  9. (slang) Short for OK.
  10. (knitting) Abbreviation of knit.
    • 1855, Godey's Magazine (volume 51, page 71)
      Knit 3, p 1, k 2, purl 1, k 2, m 1, k 2 together, k 1.
  11. (slang) Abbreviation of ketamine (a drug).
    • 1978, John C. Lilly, “Seduction by K”, in The Scientist, Philadelphia: Lippincott, →ISBN, page 167:
      At high levels of concentration of K in the blood, the observer/operator is cut off from his interlock with e.r., including the human consensus reality.
  12. (music) Abbreviation of Köchel number.
    Die Zauberflöte, K. 620
  13. (UK, government) Abbreviation of Knighthood.
  14. (economics) Abbreviation of capital.
  15. (printing) Abbreviation of black.
Translations[edit]
Usage notes[edit]

On a baseball scorecard, a frontwards K signifies striking out while swinging the bat, while a backwards K signifies striking out while looking.

Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Clipping of OK.

Interjection[edit]

K

  1. (colloquial, text messaging, Internet slang) OK
    • 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 23:
      K, dad, I'll go to my room.
    Synonym: 'kay
Usage notes[edit]

"K" usually implies apathy or anger towards the statement it is responding to,[1] in a more emphatic way than "k".

References[edit]

  1. ^ “Youthsplaining: You’ve Been Texting the Word “Okay” Wrong”, in Inside Hook‎[1], 19 July 2019

Afar[edit]

Letter[edit]

K

  1. The seventh letter in the Afar alphabet.

See also[edit]

Afrikaans[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /kɑː/

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Afrikaans alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Noun[edit]

K (plural K's)

  1. K

Angami[edit]

Letter[edit]

K

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Angami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Azerbaijani[edit]

Letter[edit]

K upper case (lower case k)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Basque[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Basque alphabet, called ka and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Chinese[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

K

  1. Alternative form of 剋 (“to beat; to scold; to fight”).

Etymology 2[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

K

  1. Short for 卡拉OK (kǎlā'ōukèi, “karaoke”).
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Initialism of 擴／扩 (kuò), based on its pinyin.

Pronunciation[edit]

Phonetik.svg This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Verb[edit]

K

  1. (Internet slang) to repost

Etymology 4[edit]

From English K, abbreviation of ketamine.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

K

  1. (slang) ketamine
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 5[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “from English K?”)

Pronunciation[edit]

Numeral[edit]

K

  1. thousand; kilo

Etymology 6[edit]

Abbreviation of English kilobyte.

Pronunciation[edit]

Classifier[edit]

K

  1. (computing, informal) kilobyte

Etymology 7[edit]

From English K, abbreviation of karat.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

K

  1. karat

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (capital, lowercase k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Dutch alphabet.

See also[edit]

  • Previous letter: J
  • Next letter: L

Esperanto[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The fifteenth letter of the Esperanto alphabet, called ko and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Conjunction[edit]

K

  1. (text messaging) Abbreviation of kaj (“and”).

Estonian[edit]

Estonian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia et

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Estonian alphabet, called kaa and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Finnish[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Finnish alphabet, called koo and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the German alphabet.

Hungarian[edit]

Compass rose

Etymology 1[edit]

Abbreviation of kelet (“east”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

K

  1. E (east)
Declension[edit]
Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative K —
accusative K-et —
dative K-nek —
instrumental K-tel —
causal-final K-ért —
translative K-té —
terminative K-ig —
essive-formal K-ként —
essive-modal — —
inessive K-ben —
superessive K-en —
adessive K-nél —
illative K-be —
sublative K-re —
allative K-hez —
elative K-ből —
delative K-ről —
ablative K-től —
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		K-é —
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		K-éi —
Possessive forms of K
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. K-em —
2nd person sing. K-ed —
3rd person sing. K-e
K-je 		—
1st person plural K-ünk —
2nd person plural K-etek —
3rd person plural K-ük
K-jük 		—
Coordinate terms[edit]

(compass points) égtáj;

északnyugat (ÉNy) észak (É) északkelet (ÉK)
nyugat (Ny) Compass rose simple plain.svg kelet (K)
délnyugat (DNy) dél (D) délkelet (DK)

Etymology 2[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): [ˈk]
  • (letter name): IPA(key): [ˈkaː]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eighteenth letter of the Hungarian alphabet, called ká and written in the Latin script.
Declension[edit]
Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative K K-k
accusative K-t K-kat
dative K-nak K-knak
instrumental K-val K-kkal
causal-final K-ért K-kért
translative K-vá K-kká
terminative K-ig K-kig
essive-formal K-ként K-kként
essive-modal — —
inessive K-ban K-kban
superessive K-n K-kon
adessive K-nál K-knál
illative K-ba K-kba
sublative K-ra K-kra
allative K-hoz K-khoz
elative K-ból K-kból
delative K-ról K-król
ablative K-tól K-któl
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		K-é K-ké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		K-éi K-kéi
Possessive forms of K
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. K-m K-im
2nd person sing. K-d K-id
3rd person sing. K-ja K-i
1st person plural K-nk K-ink
2nd person plural K-tok K-itok
3rd person plural K-juk K-ik

See also[edit]

Ido[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Indonesian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Indonesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Italian[edit]

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (letter name) IPA(key): /ˈkap.pa/
  • (phonemic realization) IPA(key): /k/
  • (phonetic realization of some speakers to distinguish between c and k pronunciations) IPA(key): [kʰ]

Letter[edit]

K f or m (invariable, upper case, lower case k)

  1. the eleventh letter of the Latin alphabet, called cappa or kappa in Italian

Usage notes[edit]

  • The letter K is not considered part of the Italian alphabet and is found only in loanwords.

See also[edit]

Latvian[edit]

Latvian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia lv

Etymology[edit]

Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.

Pronunciation[edit]

(file)

Letter[edit]

K

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Latvian alphabet, called kā and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Malay[edit]

Malay Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ms

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Name of letter) IPA(key): [ke]
  • (Phoneme, Syllable initial) IPA(key): [k]
  • (Phoneme 1, Syllable final) IPA(key): [ʔ]
  • (Phoneme 2, Syllable final) IPA(key): [k̚]

Letter[edit]

K

  1. The eleventh letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Nupe[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Nupe alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Polish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The fourteenth letter of the Polish alphabet, called ka and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • K in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • K in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Romani[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. (International Standard) The fourteenth letter of the Romani alphabet, written in the Latin script.
  2. (Pan-Vlax) The fifteenth letter of the Romani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The fourteenth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called ca or capa and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes[edit]

Used only in loanwords and some proper nouns.

See also[edit]

Saanich[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K

  1. The fourteenth letter of the Saanich alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Skolt Sami[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (lower case k)

  1. The eighteenth letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Slovene[edit]

Slovene Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sl

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (capital, lowercase k)

  1. The 12th letter of the Slovene alphabet. Preceded by J and followed by L.

Somali[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K upper case (lower case k)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, called kaaf and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes[edit]

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by Q and followed by L.

See also[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. the eleventh letter of the Spanish alphabet

Swedish[edit]

Basement level.

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter name
Phoneme

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. the eleventh letter of the Swedish alphabet

Symbol[edit]

K

  1. (SAB system) history
    Meronyms: K.2, K.3, K.4, K.5, K.6, Kc, Kd, Ke, Kf, Kg, Kh, Ki, Kj, Kk, Kl, Km, Kn, Ko, Kt, Ku, Kv, Ky
  2. (dated, county letter) Blekinge
    Synonym: 10
  3. (dated, 1941) type of beredskapskort (“readiness ration card”) valid until ration cards for any of the individual items are made
    Coordinate terms: A, U, X

Abbreviations[edit]

  1. Abbreviation of källare, källarplan or källarvåning (“basement level”).
  2. (card games) Abbreviation of kung (“king”).
    Coordinate terms: D (“queen”), Kn (“knight”), E (“ace”)
  3. Abbreviation of kallt (“cold”).
    Antonym: V (“warm”)
  4. Abbreviation of kylskåp (“refrigerator”).
    Coordinate term: F (“freezer”)
  5. Abbreviation of kontor (“office; office space”).
  6. Abbreviation of kombinationsbrunn or kopplingsbrunn (“connection vault”).
    Coordinate terms: A (“sewage”), BP (“fire hydrant”), D (“urban runnoff”), R (“cleaning well”), V (“water main”)
  7. Abbreviation of kulvert (“culvert”).
  8. Abbreviation of kultur (“culture”).
  9. Abbreviation of klubb (“club; association”).
  10. (military) Abbreviation of kavalleri (“cavalry”).

Turkish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /c/, /k/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): (standard) /ceː/, /kaː/

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The fourteenth letter of the Turkish alphabet, called ke and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Vietnamese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Portuguese K or French K.

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, called ca and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From English K, from Kelvin.

Noun[edit]

K

  1. K (Kelvin)
Usage notes[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Noun[edit]

K

  1. cancer

Yoruba[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The twelfth letter of the Yoruba alphabet, called kí and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Zulu[edit]

Letter[edit]

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Zulu alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

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