karen
Syllables: Kar·en/ˈkæɹən/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
pin pen merger/kəˈɹɪ̟n/
karen is the alternative letter-case form of Karen.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Karen
Karen
- A female given name from Danish.
- Left you a lover in that far land, / O Karen sad, that you pine so long! / Would I could unravel and understand / That sorrowful, sweet Norwegian song!1878 Celia Thaxter, Drift-Weed, Houghton, Osgood,1878, page 28 ("Karen")
- I was not called Karen after Hans Andersen's dancing girl, but after a Danish friend of my mother's who married an Englishman and was my godmother. So much for our family affairs.1918 Cecily Ullman Sidgwick, Karen, W.Collins, 1918, page 12
Noun (1) capitalized: Karen
Karen (plural Karens)
- A middle-aged white woman who exhibits a strong sense of white privilege and entitlement—often rooted in racism against minority races—and frequently targets or antagonizes individuals who face greater societal challenges or must work significantly harder than she.
- “I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence,” he wrote. “That’s when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn,” he said, using the name that has become slang for an entitled white woman.2020 May 26, Sarah Maslin Nir, quoting Christian Cooper, “White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park”, in The New York Times
- It was through that performance that Amy Cooper took on the mantle of an American archetype: the white woman who weaponizes her vulnerability to exact violence upon a Black man. […] In 2020, she is simply Karen.2020 December 27, Julia Carrie Wong, “The year of Karen: how a meme changed the way Americans talked about racism”, in The Guardian
- Antonyms:
- anti-Karen
- Any person, especially female, exhibiting an exaggerated sense of entitlement.
- This Karen threatened to get me fired if I didn't give her a free meal.
- The organization wasn't meeting my needs, so I became a total Karen and asked to see the manager. He wasn't available so I took my business elsewhere.2021 Adam Korson as Phil Orley in "Ft. Ghost Child", episode five of SurrealEstate
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Karen
Karen
- One of the seven great Parthian feudal families.
- A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).
- Synonyms:
- Karen-Pahlav, Karen-Pahlaw
Noun (2) capitalized: Karen
Karen (plural Karens or Karen)
- A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.
- U Nu's government was Socialist with a program of nationalization. But it had to fight for survival against almost universal disorder complicated by a Communist rebellion, a Karen rising, which was far more serious, and, in 1950, the arrival from Yünnan of General Li Mi's Kuomintang division after...1968, Daniel George Edward Hall, “Burma”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 4, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 442, column 2
- There are more than a hundred such groups, including the Karen of Thailand and Burma; the Kachin in Burma; the Akha, the Lahu, and the Lisu in Thailand; the Hmong, the Kmhmu, and the Yao in Laos; and the Nùng and the Lati in Vietnam.2011, Terry Miller, Sean Williams, The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music, page 303
- Synonyms:
- Kayin
Proper noun (3) capitalized: Karen
Karen
- A group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by people of the Karen ethnic group, also called Karenic.
- Former name of Kayin (“state (administrative division) of Myanmar”).
Synonyms of karen
Antonyms
Forms of karen
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | karens |
| plural | Karens |
| plural | Karen |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Caren |
| alternative form | Caron |
| alternative form | Caryn |
| alternative form | Karin |
| alternative form | Karyn |
| alternative form | Garen |
| alternative form | Kārēn |
| alternative form | Qarin |
| alternative form | Qārin |
| alternative form | Kārin |
Origin of karen
From Danish Karen, a vernacular form of Catherine that arose in medieval Denmark. The sense "middle-aged woman" comes from the popularity of the name among baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The derogatory usage was popularized via African-American Vernacular English.
From Parthian 𐭊𐭓𐭍𐭉 (krny /Kārēn/), from Old Iranian. The Armenian name is from Armenian Կարեն (Karen), from the same Parthian name.
From Burmese ကရင် (ka.rang), of disputed origin.
Words formed from karen
Phrases with karen
Words that rhyme with karen
Questions about karen
- What does karen mean?
- Karen means a female given name from Danish.
- What is karen the alternative letter-case form of?
- Karen is the alternative letter-case form of Karen.
- What part of speech is karen?
- Karen can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce karen?
- Karen is pronounced /ˈkæɹən/.
Words near karen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: karen (page history and authors); Karen (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Karen.wav, en-us-Karen.mp3, Karen (ethnolinguistic group) pronunciation.mp3.
Cite this entry: “karen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/karen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.