K

This article is about the letter of the alphabet. For other uses, seeK (disambiguation).

K
K k
Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Type	AlphabeticandLogographic
Language of origin	Latin language
Sound values	[k] [kʰ] [kʼ] [ɡ] /keɪ/
InUnicode	U+004B, U+006B
Alphabetical position	11
History
Development	Κ κ ϰ 𐌊 K k
Time period	~−700 to present
Descendants	• K •Ʞ •₭
Sisters	К כ ך ک ك ܟ ࠊ 𐎋 ከ Կ կ Հ հ Խ խ
Other
Associated graphs	k(x)
Writing direction	Left-to-right

K,ork,is the eleventhletterof theLatin alphabet,used in themodern English alphabet,the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English iskay(pronounced/ˈkeɪ/), pluralkays.

The letter K usually represents thevoiceless velar plosive.

History

Egyptian hieroglyphD	Proto-Sinaitic K	Proto-Canaanite kap	Phoenician kaph	Western Greek Kappa	Etruscan K	Latin K

The letter K comes from theGreek letterΚ (kappa), which was taken from theSemitickaph,the symbol for an open hand.This, in turn, was likely adapted bySemitic tribeswho had lived in Egypt from the hieroglyph for"hand" representing /ḏ/in the Egyptian word for hand, ⟨ḏ-r-t⟩ (likely pronounced/ˈcʼaːɾat/inOld Egyptian). The Semites evidently assigned it the sound value/k/instead, because their word for hand started with that sound.

K was brought into the Latin alphabet with the nameka/kaː/ to differentiate it from C, namedce(pronounced /keː/) and Q, namedquand pronounced /kuː/. In the earliestLatininscriptions, the letters C, K and Q were all used to represent the sounds/k/and/ɡ/(which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, Q was used before a rounded vowel (e.g.⟨EQO⟩'ego'), K before /a/ (e.g.⟨KALENDIS⟩'calendis'), and C elsewhere. Later, the use of C and its variant G replaced most usages of K and Q. K survived only in a few fossilized forms, such asKalendae,"thecalends".

AfterGreekwords were taken into Latin, the kappa was transliterated as a C. Loanwords from other alphabets with the sound/k/were also transliterated with C. Hence, theRomance languagesgenerally use C, in imitating Classical Latin's practice, and have K only in later loanwords from other language groups. TheCeltic languagesalso tended to use C instead of K, and this influence carried over intoOld English.

Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of⟨k⟩by language

Orthography	Phonemes	Environment
Standard Chinese(Pinyin)	/kʰ/
English	/k/,silent
Esperanto	/k/
Faroese	/k/
	/tʃʰ/	Before⟨e⟩(except⟨ei⟩),⟨i⟩,and⟨j⟩
German	/k/
Ancient Greekromanization	/k/
Modern Greekromanization	/k/	Except before/e,i/
	/c/	Before/e,i/
Icelandic	/kʰ/,/cʰ/,/k/,/c/,/ʰk/,/x/
Norwegian	/k/	Except before⟨i⟩or⟨y⟩
	/ç/	Before⟨i⟩or⟨y⟩
Swedish	/k/
	/ɕ/	Before⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨y⟩,⟨y⟩,⟨ä⟩,⟨ö⟩
Turkish	/k/	Except before⟨â⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨ö⟩,⟨û⟩,⟨ü⟩
	/c/	Before⟨â⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨ö⟩,⟨û⟩,⟨ü⟩

English

The letter usually represents/k/in English. It issilentwhen it comes before⟨n⟩at the start of astem,e.g.:

• At the start of a word (knight,knife,knot,know,andknee)
• After a prefix (unknowable)
• In compounds (penknife)

English is now the onlyGermanic languageto productively use "hard"⟨c⟩(outside thedigraph⟨ck⟩) rather than⟨k⟩(althoughDutchuses it in loanwords of Latin origin,and the pronunciation of these words follows the same hard/soft distinction as in English).

LikeJ,X,Q,andZ,the letter K is not used very frequently in English. It is thefifth least frequently used letterin the English language, with a frequency in words of about 0.8%.

Other languages

In most languages where it is employed, this letter represents the sound/k/(with or withoutaspiration) or some similar sound.

The Latinization ofModern Greekalso uses this letter for/k/.However, before the front vowels (/e,i/), this is rendered as[c],which can be considered a separate phoneme.

Other systems

TheInternational Phonetic Alphabetuses ⟨k⟩ for thevoiceless velar plosive.

Other uses

Main article:K (disambiguation)

• In theInternational System of Units (SI),theSI prefixfor one thousand iskilo-,officially abbreviated ask:for example, prefixed tometre/meteror its abbreviationm,kilometreorkmsignifies a thousand metres. As such, people occasionally represent numbers in a non-standard notation by replacing the last three zeros of the general numeral withK,as in 30K for 30,000.
• "K" replacing "C" insatiric misspelling.
• K is the unit symbol for thekelvin,used to measurethermodynamic temperature(the degree sign is not used with this symbol).
• K is thechemical symbolforelementpotassium(from its Latin namekalium).
• Triangle K.
• Inchess notation,the letterKrepresents the King (WK for White King, BK for Black King).
• Inbaseball scoring,the letterKis used to represent astrikeout.A forwards orientedKrepresents a "strikeout swinging"; a backwards oriented K () represents a "strikeout looking".
• As an abbreviation forOK,often used in emails and short text messages.
• K is used as a slang term forKetamineamong recreational drug users.
• In theCMYK color model,Krepresents black ink.
• InInternational Morse code,it is used to mean "over".
• Infracture mechanics,Kis used to represent thestress intensity factor.
• Inphysics,kusually stands for theBoltzmann constant.
• InArgentinian politics,K is used as a symbol forKirchnerism.
• K (logic).
• In theUnited Kingdomunder theold system(before 2001), a licence plate that begins with "K" for example "K123 XYZ" would correspond to a vehicle registered between August 1, 1992, and July 31, 1993. Again under the old system, a licence plate that ends with "K" for example "ABC 123K" would correspond to a vehicle that was registered between August 1, 1971, and July 31, 1972.
• OnIdaho license plates,an initial K in the plate number indicates it was issued inKootenai County.

Related characters

Ancestors, descendants and siblings

• 𐤊:SemiticletterKaph,from which the following symbols originally derive:
• Κ κ/ϰ:Greekletterkappa,from which K derives
• К к:CyrillicletterKa,also derived from Kappa
• K withdiacritics:Ƙ ƙ,Ꝁ ꝁ,Ḱ ḱ,Ǩ ǩ,Ḳ ḳ,Ķ ķ,ᶄ,Ⱪ ⱪ,Ḵ ḵ
  • Ꞣ and ꞣ were used inLatvian orthographybefore 1921
• TheUralic Phonetic Alphabetuses various forms of the letter K:
  • U+1D0BᴋLATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL K
  • U+1D37ᴷMODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL K
  • U+1D4FᵏMODIFIER LETTER SMALL K
• ₖ: Subscript small k was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902.
• Ʞ ʞ: Turned capital and small k were used in transcriptions of theDakota languagein publications of the American Board of Ethnology in the late 19th century.Turned small k was also used for avelar clickin the International Phonetic Alphabet but its use waswithdrawn in 1970.
• 𝼐: Small capital turned k is used as aclick letter
• 𝼃: Small letter reversed k is used as aVoice Quality Symbol(VoQS)

Ligatures and abbreviations

• ₭:Lao kip
• Ꝃ ꝃ, Ꝅ ꝅ: Various forms of K were used for medievalscribal abbreviations

Other representations

Computing

Character information

Preview	K		k		K		Ｋ		ｋ
Unicode name	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K		LATIN SMALL LETTER K		KELVIN SIGN		FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K		FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER K
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	75	U+004B	107	U+006B	8490	U+212A	65323	U+FF2B	65355	U+FF4B
UTF-8	75	4B	107	6B	226 132 170	E2 84 AA	239 188 171	EF BC AB	239 189 139	EF BD 8B
Numeric character reference	K	K	k	k	K	K	Ｋ	Ｋ	ｋ	ｋ
EBCDICfamily	210	D2	146	92
ASCII	75	4B	107	6B

Other

NATO phonetic	Morse code
Kilo

Signal flag	Flag semaphore	American manual alphabet(ASLfingerspelling)	British manual alphabet(BSLfingerspelling)	Braille dots-13 Unified English Braille

External links

• Media related toKat Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition ofKat Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition ofkat Wiktionary