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karen

noun

Simple meaning

A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kehruhn

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɛɹən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.

  2. A group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by people of the Karen ethnic group, also called Karenic.

  3. A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).

  4. Alternative letter-case form of Karen ("(derogatory) any person, especially female, exhibiting an exaggerated sense of entitlement").

  5. Former name of Kayin ("state (administrative division) of Myanmar").

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.