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Monday 22 September 2014

K is for potassium, and thousand...

The letter K, the 11th letter of the modern English alphabet, also indicates the sound the letter makes, or its distinctive shape. But what else does it mean?

The page HERE attributes 133 definitions for K, some duplicated, most of which I was not familiar with. Here are some that I DID know:

King, in chess, and in cards
Kicker, in American football
Strikeout, in baseball; a backwards K indicates someone striking out without swinging at the third strike
Kids, as in the acronym DINK, which means Dual Income - No Kids
Kindergarten, as in grades K-12
Kellogg's, the breakfast cereal maker, on the New York Stock Exchange
Potassium, the element, from the New Latin kalium, atomic number 19
Kilo, as in kilogram
Kilobyte, 1024 bytes
Thousand, as in 20K, for 20 thousand
Kelvin, the temperature scale. Zero degrees K is absolute zero, -273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67°F
Killed, in genealogy

Other definitions not on the list:
Carat or karat, a unit of purity for gold alloys
Kings, Biblical books

But the one I know, but have difficulty with, is that K means OK in Internet chat. Okay, which I wrote about recently, is already a shortened form. This seems silly.

But it's NOT silly to KICK in and participate in ABC Wednesday this week. The KINDLY KREW will surely visit you.

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15 comments:

  1. Kapow! Batman rides again! Great intro Roger!

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  3. Kourse you have to invent words beginning with "K" in English. There are in my English dictionary 7 1/2 pages of words starting with "K", whereas my Dutch dictionary has 57 pages of words beginning with "K".So "K"is always a difficult letter for us.
    Fantastic introduction!

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  4. Here's another one I just learned: "KK" - Twitter shorthand for "Kewl, kewl" (cool, cool)... scary, huh.

    Thanks as always to Denise, Roger and the awesome, kick-ass ABCWednesday team!

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  5. So many K words, Roger.
    I like Karat for obvious reasons :)

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  6. Thank you kindly krew for all you do!

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  7. and I love the word Kaleidoscope !!

    PhenoMenon
    http://throodalookingglass.com/2014/09/kathakali-makeup/

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  8. Thanks for all the K-words, I keep this post for "K" for the next round !

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  9. I guess this would be a great way to teach children different words!

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  10. Thanks for hosting!
    I feature KEW boathouse with kayaks, kiosk and kids!

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  11. Love those letter K references. DINK made me smile. The baseball references were brand new to me. Agree with you about OK though I must admit, we most often say "K" when speaking. Fun post!

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  12. Knowing no bounds in your enthusiasm for this letter...wonderful intro♪ http://lauriekazmierczak.com/koi-pond-lily-pad/

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