📖 K — The English dictionary · page 9

knuckle — Everyday, meaning 1: One of the joints of your fingers, especially where the fingers join the hand.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A joint of meat from an animal's leg, as in pork knuckle.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: «knuckle down» — to start working hard.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: «knuckle under» — to give in and obey.↗ Example: He knocked on the door with his knuckles.↗ · She grazed her knuckles on the wall.↗ · Time to knuckle down and do your homework.↗ · Use your knuckles to remember which months have 31 days.↗ · My knuckles went white as I held the rollercoaster bar.↗ · He got a rap on the knuckles for being late.↗

knuckles — Everyday, meaning 1: Knuckles are the joints in your fingers, especially where your fingers join your hand, which stick out when you make a fist.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A knuckle is a joint of meat from an animal's leg.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To knuckle down means to start working hard.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To knuckle under means to give in.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: To rap someone on the knuckles means to tap or scold them lightly as a punishment.↗ Example: He knocked on the door with his knuckles.↗ · She gripped the rope until her knuckles turned white.↗ · Grandpa cracks his knuckles before playing the piano.↗ · My knuckles were sore after the cold.↗ · Each finger has three knuckles, but the thumb has two.↗ · It's time to knuckle down and revise.↗ · He grazed his knuckles on the wall.↗ · The fist showed four bumpy knuckles.↗ · If they broke down in their make-believe he rapped them on the knuckles.↗

ko — Everyday, meaning 1: (sport) Short for «knockout»: in boxing, hitting the other fighter so hard they cannot get up and the fight ends.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) To knock someone out; also to make someone fall asleep or very tired.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: In games and video games, «KO» means a character has been beaten.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (Ko) A surname, for example in Korea and China (a name).↗ Example: The boxer won by KO in the third round.↗ · «K.O.!» flashed on the game screen.↗ · That long walk totally KO'd me.↗ · A TKO means the referee stopped the fight.↗ · The champion's KO punch was famous.↗ · My little sister was KO'd on the sofa by eight o'clock.↗ · In the cartoon, the robot got KO'd by a giant rubber duck.↗

koala — Everyday, meaning 1: A koala is a grey, furry Australian animal with big round ears and a black nose that lives in eucalyptus trees and eats their leaves.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: It is a marsupial: the baby, called a joey, grows in its mother's pouch.↗ Example: The koala was asleep in the fork of a tree.↗ · Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves.↗ · A baby koala is called a joey.↗ · We held a koala at a wildlife park in Queensland.↗ · Koalas sleep for most of the day.↗ · Many koalas were hurt in the bushfires.↗ · The joey rides on its mother's back after leaving the pouch.↗ · Koalas live only in Australia.↗

kodiak — Everyday, meaning 1: Kodiak is a large island off the south coast of Alaska, USA.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A Kodiak bear is a very large kind of brown bear that lives on Kodiak and nearby islands.↗ Example: The Kodiak bear is one of the largest bears in the world.↗ · Kodiak Island is in Alaska.↗ · A Kodiak bear can stand taller than a door on its back legs.↗ · Kodiak bears catch salmon in the rivers.↗ · We watched a film about the bears of Kodiak.↗ · Kodiak bears eat berries, grass and fish.↗ · The town of Kodiak has a big fishing harbour.↗

kohlrabi — Everyday, meaning 1: Kohlrabi is a vegetable of the cabbage family with a round, swollen stem that grows just above the ground; you can eat it raw or cooked.↗ Example: Kohlrabi looks a bit like a little alien.↗ · We grew kohlrabi in the school garden.↗ · Raw kohlrabi is crunchy and sweet.↗ · Mum added kohlrabi to the soup.↗ · Kohlrabi can be green or purple.↗ · Kohlrabi is related to cabbage and broccoli.↗

kola — Everyday, meaning 1: Kola (or cola) is a tree from West Africa whose nuts contain caffeine.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A kola nut is the seed of this tree; people chew it, and it was once used to flavour cola drinks.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (a name) The Kola Peninsula is a large piece of land in the far north-west of Russia, near Finland and Norway.↗ Example: The kola nut tastes bitter.↗ · Kola nuts contain caffeine, like coffee.↗ · In Nigeria, guests may be offered kola nuts as a welcome.↗ · Cola drinks were named after the kola nut.↗ · The Kola Peninsula is inside the Arctic Circle.↗ · The deepest hole ever drilled is on the Kola Peninsula.↗ · The kola tree grows in hot, wet forests.↗

kongo — Everyday, meaning 1: The Kongo are a people of Central Africa who live in Angola, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The Kingdom of Kongo was a large African kingdom on the Atlantic coast from about 1390 to the 1800s.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Kongo (Kikongo) is the language of the Kongo people.↗ Example: The Kingdom of Kongo traded with Portugal.↗ · Many Kongo people speak Kikongo.↗ · Kongo artists carved beautiful wooden figures.↗ · The Congo River is named after the Kongo people.↗ · The king of Kongo wrote letters to the king of Portugal.↗ · We read a folk tale told by the Kongo people.↗

koodoo — Everyday, meaning 1: Kipling's spelling of kudu: a large African antelope; the male has long spiral (twisted) horns, and both have thin white stripes on a grey-brown body.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: There are two kinds, the greater kudu and the lesser kudu.↗ Example: The koodoo hid among the stripy shadows of the forest.↗ · A kudu has long twisted horns.↗ · We saw a greater kudu at the safari park.↗ · Kipling spelled kudu as «koodoo».↗ · The kudu's thin white stripes help it hide among trees.↗ · Lions and leopards hunt kudu in Africa.↗

kookaburra — Everyday, meaning 1: A kookaburra is a big Australian bird of the kingfisher family with a loud call that sounds like a person laughing.↗ Example: The kookaburra laughed loudly at dawn.↗ · Kookaburras eat snakes, lizards and insects.↗ · We sang «Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree».↗ · A kookaburra snatched a sausage from the barbecue.↗ · The laughing kookaburra is a kind of kingfisher.↗

kopje — Everyday, meaning 1: (South Africa) A small hill, usually rocky, standing alone on flat open land (the veld).↗ Everyday, meaning 2: It comes from Afrikaans and Dutch, meaning «little head».↗ Example: The lions lay on top of the kopje, watching the plain.↗ · A kopje is a small rocky hill in South Africa.↗ · From the kopje, we could see the whole valley.↗ · The soldiers hid behind a kopje.↗ · Baboons climbed over the rocks of the kopje.↗ · The safari truck stopped near a kopje at sunset.↗

korean — Everyday, meaning 1: Korean means from or about Korea, a peninsula in East Asia that is divided into two countries, South Korea and North Korea.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A Korean is a person from Korea or with Korean family roots.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Korean is the language spoken in Korea, written with an alphabet called Hangul.↗ Example: Kimchi is a spicy Korean dish made from cabbage.↗ · My friend Ji-woo speaks Korean at home.↗ · The Korean alphabet is called Hangul.↗ · Seoul is the capital of South Korea, and many Koreans live there.↗ · We listened to a Korean song in music class.↗ · The restaurant serves Korean barbecue.↗

kosher — Everyday, meaning 1: (Judaism) Kosher food is food that is allowed by Jewish law, prepared in the right way; for example, meat and milk are not eaten together, and pork is not eaten.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A kosher shop, kitchen or restaurant sells or makes kosher food.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (informal) Genuine, honest or acceptable: «Is this deal kosher?».↗ Example: Many Jewish families keep kosher.↗ · A kosher kitchen has separate dishes for meat and milk.↗ · Pork is not kosher.↗ · The school canteen offers kosher meals.↗ · We bought kosher bread at the Jewish bakery.↗ · Something about the email didn't seem kosher, so we deleted it.↗ (informal)↗ · Fish with fins and scales are kosher.↗

kowtow — Everyday, meaning 1: To kowtow is to kneel and touch the ground with your forehead to show deep respect, as people once did before the Emperor of China.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) To kowtow to someone is to obey them too much and try too hard to please them.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A kowtow is this deep kneeling bow.↗ Example: Visitors had to kowtow before the emperor.↗ · A British ambassador refused to kowtow in 1793.↗ · He kowtows to the team captain all the time.↗ · Don't kowtow to bullies; tell a teacher.↗ · The servant made a low kowtow.↗ · I won't kowtow just because she is popular.↗ · The king expected everyone to kowtow to him.↗

kremlin — Everyday, meaning 1: (the Kremlin) The old walled fortress in the centre of Moscow, where the President of Russia has his offices.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (the Kremlin) Used in the news to mean the Russian government itself.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (a kremlin) Any old Russian walled fortress in the middle of a city.↗ Example: The Kremlin stands next to Red Square in Moscow.↗ · «The Kremlin denied the report,» said the newsreader.↗ · The Kremlin's walls are made of red brick.↗ · Many old Russian towns have their own kremlin.↗ · The President of Russia works in the Kremlin.↗ · The Kremlin has many churches with golden domes.↗ · Most countries at the UN criticised the Kremlin for invading Ukraine.↗ · Why, they had been talking of Russia and of Moscow, and thus mention was made of the Kremlin, which little George had once drawn for Miss Emily.↗

krill — Everyday, meaning 1: Krill are tiny shrimp-like sea animals that live in huge groups in cold oceans and are food for whales, penguins, seals, fish and seabirds.↗ Example: Blue whales eat millions of krill.↗ · Krill are tiny animals that look like shrimp.↗ · Penguins in Antarctica feed on krill.↗ · Krill eat plankton, and whales eat krill.↗ · Huge swarms of krill can turn the sea pink.↗ · If krill disappeared, many sea animals would go hungry.↗

kris — Everyday, meaning 1: A short dagger from Malaysia, Indonesia and nearby lands, often with a wavy blade, a traditional weapon and a work of art passed down in families.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (a name) Kris is a short form of names like Kristopher, Kristina or Kristen.↗ Example: The museum showed a kris with a wavy blade and a gold handle.↗ · In Java, a family kris is passed from parents to children.↗ · The smith folded the metal many times to make the kris.↗ · My friend Kris is in my class.↗ · The warrior in the old story carried a kris in his belt.↗ · A kris is a dagger, not a toy.↗

kudu — Everyday, meaning 1: A large African antelope with grey-brown fur and thin white stripes; the males have long, spiral, twisted horns.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: There are two kinds: the greater kudu and the lesser kudu.↗ Example: The kudu has amazing spiral horns.↗ · We saw three kudu drinking at the waterhole.↗ · Kudu eat leaves from bushes and trees.↗ · A lion was stalking a kudu in the long grass.↗ · Female kudu do not have horns.↗ · The kudu jumped over a two-metre fence.↗ · In the food chain, kudu are herbivores.↗

kw — Everyday, meaning 1: (science) kW stands for kilowatt, a unit of power equal to 1,000 watts.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: kWh stands for kilowatt-hour, a unit of energy used on electricity bills.↗ Example: The kettle uses about 2 kW.↗ · A small heater may be 1 kW.↗ · Our electricity bill shows we used 300 kWh.↗ · The electric car's motor is 150 kW.↗ · 1 kW = 1,000 watts.↗ · A 2 kW heater for 3 hours uses 6 kWh.↗

kwa — Everyday, meaning 1: Kwa is a large family of languages spoken in West Africa, in countries such as Ghana, Togo, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria; Akan (Twi), Ewe and Fon are Kwa languages.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (Swahili) «Kwa» is a common little word meaning «for», «to», «with» or «by», as in «kwa heri» (goodbye).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: As a fragment, «kwa» may be part of a longer word or a sound effect, like a duck's or frog's call; it is not an English word.↗ Example: Twi and Ewe belong to the Kwa languages of West Africa.↗ · Millions of people in Ghana speak a Kwa language.↗ · «Kwa heri!» means «Goodbye!» in Swahili.↗ · Linguists group Ewe and Fon in the Kwa family.↗ · The comic showed a frog going «kwa kwa».↗ · Kwa is not an English word; it is a name for a language group.↗

kylie — Everyday, meaning 1: (Australia) A kylie is a boomerang, especially a non-returning hunting boomerang, a curved throwing stick made by Aboriginal Australians.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (a name) Kylie is a girl's name, like the Australian singer Kylie Minogue.↗ Example: The kylie spun through the air.↗ · Aboriginal hunters used a kylie to hunt animals.↗ · A kylie does not always come back like a returning boomerang.↗ · We saw an old kylie at the museum.↗ · Kylie is a popular name in Australia.↗ · The kylie was carved from hard wood.↗