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Ken vs Kex - What's the difference?

ken | kex |

As nouns the difference between ken and kex

is that ken is knowledge or perception while kex is the dried stem of certain large herbaceous plants.

As a verb ken

is {{context|lang=en|transitive|mostly|Scotland}} To know, perceive or understand.

As a proper noun Ken

is a diminutive of the male given name Kenneth.

ken

English

Etymology 1

Northern and Scottish dialects from (etyl) . The noun meaning “range of sight” is a nautical abbreviation of present participle kenning.

Noun

(-)
  • Knowledge or perception.
  • Range of sight.
    • Usage notes
    In common usage a (fossil word), found only in the phrase .
    Coordinate terms
    * (nautical range of sight) (l)
    Quotations
    * (English Citations of "ken")

    Verb

  • To know, perceive or understand.
  • To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.
  • * 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):
    • I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of [the telescope] upon the round-top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off.
  • * Addison
    • We ken them from afar.''
  • * Shakespeare
    • 'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gait.
    Quotations
    * (English Citations of "ken")
    Derived terms
    * beken * foreken * kenned * kenning * misken * underken * unkenned
    References
    * * * * *

    Etymology 2

    Perhaps from kennel.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang, UK, obsolete) A house, especially a den of thieves.
    • English irregular verbs ----

    kex

    English

    Alternative forms

    * kix

    Noun

    (kexes)
  • The dried stem of certain large herbaceous plants.
  • (obsolete, botany) A plant having such a stem; a weed, a kecksy.
  • (rare) A dry husk or covering.
  • * 1972 , Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things , McGraw-Hill 1972, pp. 100-101:
    • On the bedside table a new package of cigarettes and a traveling clock had for neighbor a nicely wrapped box containing the green figurine of a girl skier which shone through the double kix .
    ----