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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.

K (lower case k)

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

K

  1. (chemistry) Symbol for potassium (Latin kalium).
  2. Symbol for kelvin, the SI unit of thermodynamic temperature.
  3. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for lysine.
  4. (geology) Symbol for hydraulic conductivity.
  5. Abbreviation of kilo (thousand).
    5k = 5,000
  6. (radio slang) over, waiting for reply
  7. (linguistics) A wildcard for a velar consonant
  8. (linguistics) A wildcard for a consonant (e.g. in German-language texts)

The Unicode Standard states that K (U+212A KELVIN SIGN) is included in Unicode only for backward compatibility reasons. To represent kelvin, K (U+004B LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K) is preferred.

  • Letter styles

  • Uppercase and lowercase versions of K, in normal and italic type

  • Uppercase and lowercase K in Fraktur

The template Template:Letter does not use the parameter(s): 
Character=K
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.

Other representations of K:

  • (name of letter) IPA(key): /keɪ/, [kʰeɪ]
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

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).

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.

Abbreviations.

  1. (stenoscript) Abbreviation of counter, prefix counter-, sequence contr.

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.
    5k = 5,000
  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. On a baseball scorecard, a frontwards K signifies striking out while swinging the bat, while a backwards K signifies striking out while looking.
  7. (card games, chess) Abbreviation of king.
  8. (biology) Abbreviation of carrying capacity.
  9. (geology) Abbreviation of Cretaceous.
  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.

  12. (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.

  13. (music) Abbreviation of Köchel number.

    Die Zauberflöte, K. 620

  14. (UK, government) Abbreviation of Knighthood.
  15. (economics) Abbreviation of capital.
  16. (printing) Abbreviation of black.
  17. (slang, from Jamaican Creole) Abbreviation of Kalashnikov.

    • 2011 August 16, “My People”‎[1]performed by Kendrick Lamar,Jay Rock:

      We used to run from the KKK but now we running from our brothers that be holding them K's.

    • 2018 October 16, “Demon Boy”, performed by Slowthai:

      Yeti in the Serengeti, believe the myth. K-man stupid, rub together sticks.

    • 2019 November 22, “Payback” (track 11), in Netflix&Deal‎[2], performed by 03 Greedo, Kenny Beats, OhGeesy, and Judge:

      Keep the chopper, I'ma spray that. This is an AR, don't keep the K, man.

    • 2021 November 19, “Pink 3 Remix”‎[3]performed by PCAJAY:

      You come to my trap, bitch, you better knock. I keep a 'K and these bullets gon' flock.

    • 2022 June 4, “OVO”‎[4]performed by Big Yavo:

      A fuck nigga diss GG, he get hit with a K. I'll be back in the morning, just went to the A.

    • 2022 September 25, “Dork”‎[5]performed by Aeterluv:

      Bitch ass nigga get rocked. I walk in da trap with a Glock and a K in my sock. U fag ass nigga get popped. U a gay lil dumb ahh nigga came from TikTok. I'mma talk my shi won't stop. Bitch u all on my dick for a drop, nigga get off my cock.

  18. Abbreviation of kritik.

playing card

  • Danish: K (da) (konge)
  • Dutch: H (nl) (heer)
  • Estonian: K (et) (kuningas)
  • French: R (fr) (roi)
  • German: K (de) (König)
  • Icelandic: K (köngur)
  • Polish: K (pl) (król)
  • Portuguese: R (pt) (rei)
  • Russian: К (ru) (K) (король)
  • Swedish: K (sv) (kung)

Clipping of OK.

K

  1. (colloquial, text messaging, Internet slang) OK
    Synonym: 'kay

    • 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 23:

      K, dad, I'll go to my room.

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

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

K

  1. The seventh letter in the Afar alphabet.
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /kɑː/

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

K (plural K's, diminutive K'tjie)

  1. K

K

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

K upper case (lower case k)

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Basque alphabet, called ka and written in the Latin script.
  • /k/ is from West Germanic stem-initial or geminated *k; from *k in nk, lk, rk; in most of Moselle Franconian from *gg.

K

  1. A letter in the German-based alphabet of Central Franconian.
  2. A letter in the Dutch-based alphabet of Central Franconian.

Doubling of K

  • In the German-based spelling, doubling of k yields ck. This is used after short vowels except in certain function words and when the letter is followed by another consonant within the word stem.
  • In the Dutch-based spelling, doubling of k yields kk. This is used after short vowels if the syllable were otherwise open.

K

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

K

  1. Short for 卡拉OK (kǎlā'ōukèi, “karaoke”).
    唱K所 [Shanghainese]  ―  5tshaon-khe-su [Wugniu]  ―  karaoke bar

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

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

K

  1. (Internet slang) to repost

From English K, abbreviation of ketamine.

K

  1. (slang) ketamine

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

K

  1. thousand; kilo

K

  1. kilometre
  2. kilogram

Dialectal synonyms of 公斤 (“kilogram”) [map]

Abbreviation of English kilobyte.

K

  1. (computing, informal) kilobyte

From English K, abbreviation of karat.

K

  1. karat

K

  1. (Cantonese) Alternative form of 茄 (ke1, “poop”)

From the letter K of the English pattern playing cards. In the spoken language, its name is generally a borrowing from English king or the letter K.

K

  1. (card games) king (Classifier: 隻／只; 張／张)

Dialectal synonyms of 老K (“king (playing cards)”) [map]

K

  1. The eleventh letter of the Latin alphabet.

K

  1. The eleventh letter used in Pinyin.
  • 《汉语拼音方案》 defines a standard pronunciation for each letter. However, these pronunciations are rarely used in education; another pronunciation is commonly used instead.
  • The pronunciation above are only used while referring to letters in Pinyin. They are not used in other context (such as English).
  1. IPA(key): /kʰ/

K (lower case k)

  1. A letter of the Chipewyan alphabet, written in the Latin script.
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /kaː/

K (capital, lowercase k)

  1. the eleventh letter of the Dutch alphabet
  • Previous letter: J
  • Next letter: L

K (upper case K, lower case k)

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

K

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on those of Swedish, German and Latin, and was first used in the mid-16th century. No earlier script is known. See the Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, and K for information on the development of the glyph itself.

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the German alphabet.
  • Doubling of k normally yields ck, but loanwords with original cc are excepted. These are integrated with kk (Akkusativ, Mokka) or retain the original spelling (Account, Piccolo).

K (lower case k)

  1. A letter of the Heiltsuk alphabet, written in the Latin script.
 
Compass rose

Abbreviation of kelet (“east”).

K

  1. E (east)
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 —

(compass points) égtájak;

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eighteenth letter of the Hungarian alphabet, called ká and written in the Latin script.
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

K (lower case k)

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Indonesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.
  • (letter name) IPA(key): /ˈkap.pa/
  • (phonemic realization) IPA(key): /k/

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

  1. The eleventh letter of the Latin alphabet, called cappa or kappa in Italian
  • The letter K is not considered part of the Italian alphabet and is found only in loanwords.

K (plural K dem, quantified K)

  1. Kalashnikov

    • 2002 November 12, “Like Glue” (track 4), in Dutty Rock‎[6], performed by Sean Paul:

      One ting me haffi tell dem, Dutty got di woody woody. Frontway, backway, dutty K-man have di shooby shooby.

      One thing I have to tell them, I've got an erection, Forwards, backwards, the dirty gunman wielding a Kalashnikov has to shove it, shove it.

    • 2007 January 1, “Ay Ya Ay Ya” (track 14), in Riddim Driven: Shadowz (2008)‎[7], performed by Blak Rino:

      Any bwoy diss di link make di paper. Di 'K full him of hole like strainer

      If any boy cuts out the middle man to make money then the AK will fill him up with holes like a strainer.

    • 2008 September 12, “Weh Dem A Go” (track 46), in Jamaican Style, Vol.3‎[8], performed by Vybz Kartel,Jah Vinci:

      Dem shoulda memba say di Haskell a spray, di sixpance a play. Weh dem a guh wid dem Chiney K?

      They should remember that the Haskell(Hi-Point) 45 ACP Semi-auto Pistol sprays (bullets), the six-shooter will play. Where are they going with their (imitation) Chinese Kalashnikovs?

    • 2008 December 27, “Last Man Standing” (track 24), in Pon Di Gaza 2.0‎[9], performed by Vybz Kartel:

      Me get a K from Vagga from De La Vega weh mek Chiney man skin black like naega

      I get a Kalashnikov from my friend Vagga from De La Vega which makes a Chinese man's skin black like a nigga's.

    • 2008, “Chiney K” (track 18), in Gaza vs Gully EP Part 1‎[10], performed by Mavado:

      Inna middle day, gun play. Bad man ah beat di Chiney K. Night turn to day, all mama pray. Dem ah beat di Chiney K.

      In the middle of the day, there's gun play. Bad men shoot the Chinese imitation Kalashnikovs. Night turns to day, all mothers pray. They shoot the Chinese (imitation) Kalashnikovs.

The Kashubian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Kashubian alphabet article on Wikipedia for more, and K for development of the glyph itself.

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The fifteenth letter of the Kashubian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

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.

 
K

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

K

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the history of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, and K for development of the glyph itself.

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

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.

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

Used only in loanwords and some proper nouns.

K

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

The Silesian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Silesian language article on Wikipedia for more, and K for development of the glyph itself.

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

K (lower case k)

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

K (capital, lowercase k)

  1. The twelfth letter of the Slovene alphabet, written in the Latin script.
  2. The eighteenth letter of the Slovene alphabet (Resian), written in the Latin script.
  3. The thirteenth letter of the Slovene alphabet (Natisone Valley dialect), written in the Latin script.

K upper case (lower case k)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, called kaaf and written in the Latin script.
  1. The sixteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by Q and followed by L.

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Spanish alphabet

K

  1. (Argentina) Abbreviation of kirchnerista.
    Antonyms: anti-K, antikirchnerista
 
Basement level.
Letter name
Phoneme

K (upper case, lower case k)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Swedish alphabet

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
  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”).

Borrowed from Spanish K. Each pronunciation has a different source:

  • Filipino alphabet pronunciation is influenced by English K.
  • Abakada alphabet pronunciation is influenced by Baybayin character ᜃ (ka).
  • Abecedario pronunciation is from Spanish K.

The use of ⟨K⟩ instead of using the Spanish-based ⟨C⟩ and ⟨Q⟩ was promoted in the late 19th century primarily by the educated (such as José Rizal and Trinidad Pardo de Tavera) because of the Baybayin character primarily being applicable to all vowels, as well as the ease of usage with Tagalog grammar rules. Its order in the Abakada alphabet was due to the order of the similar sounding ⟨C⟩ in the Spanish alphabet.

  • (Standard Tagalog)
    • IPA(key): /ˈkej/ [ˈkeɪ̯] (letter name, Filipino alphabet)
    • IPA(key): /ˈka/ [ˈka] (letter name, Abakada alphabet, Abecedario)
      • Rhymes: -a
    • IPA(key): /k/ [k] (phoneme)
    • IPA(key): /k/ [x] (phoneme, intervocalic)

K (upper case, lower case k, Baybayin spelling ᜃᜒᜌ᜔)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Filipino alphabet), called key and written in the Latin script.

K (upper case, lower case k, Baybayin spelling ᜃ)

  1. The third letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Abakada alphabet), called ka and written in the Latin script.
  2. (historical) The twelfth letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Abecedario), called ka and written in the Latin script.
  • “K”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
  • Thomas, Megan C. (2007) “K Is for De-Kolonization: Anti-Colonial Nationalism and Orthographic Reform”, in Comparative Studies in Society and History‎[11], volume 49, number 4, →ISSN, pages 938–967
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /c/, /k/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): (standard) /ceː/, /kaː/

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

From Portuguese K or French K.

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

From English K, from Kelvin.

K

  1. K (Kelvin)

K

  1. cancer

K (upper case, lower case k)

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

K (upper case, lower case k)

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