karl
karl noun: a medieval Scandinavian freeman.
Noun
karl (plural karls)
- A medieval Scandinavian freeman.
- Whatever its object the runrig system was not udal tenure, and therefore it appears to me to show a settlement of the unfree. Whether these were the karls or the thralls is the only problem, and I incline to think that there is little room for doubt that these were the karls. The thrall may have...a. 1936, Ian B[ernard] Stoughton Holbourn, “Udal Property and the Kings of Foula”, in The Isle of Foula: A Series of Articles on Britain’s Loneliest Inhabited Isle, Edinburgh: Birlinn, published...
- The largest group in Viking society were the karls, who were free men and women. Many karls owned their own farmsteads; others rented land from rich landowners.1993, Philippa Wingate, Anne Millard, “Viking society and government”, in The Viking World (Usborne Illustrated World History), Tulsa, Okla.: EDC Publishing, published 1994, page 20, column 2
Proper noun capitalized: Karl
Karl
- A male given name from the Germanic languages, equivalent to English Charles.
- “We are pleased that LSST has now been named the Vera C. Rubin Observatory,” said Rubin’s sons Allan Rubin, David Rubin, and Karl Rubin in a statement.2020 January 7, Ashley Strickland, “First US observatory named in honor of a female astronomer, Vera Rubin”, in CNN
karl meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Kannada
karl in Tamil
- கார்ல்
karl in Urdu
- کارل
karl in Telugu
- కార్ల్
karl in Kannada
- ಕಾರ್ಲ್
More languagesFewer languages
- karl in Odia
- କାର୍ଲ୍
Examples of karl in a sentence
- Whether these were the karls or the thralls is the only problem, and I incline to think that there is little room for doubt that these were the karls.a. 1936, Ian B[ernard] Stoughton Holbourn, “Udal Property and the Kings of Foula”, in The Isle of Foula: A Series of Articles on Britain’s...
- There were three kinds of Viking: thralls, karls and jarls.2016, Louise Spilsbury, “Powerful Kings and Suffering Slaves”, in The Vikings: Dig Up the Secrets of the Dead (History Hunters), Oxford...
Forms of karl
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | karls |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Carl |
Origin of karl
Learned borrowing from Old Norse karl. Doublet of carl, ceorl, and churl.
From German and North Germanic (Scandinavian) Karl, from Germanic. Doublet of Charles.
Words formed from karl
Phrases with karl
Words that rhyme with karl
Questions about karl
- What does karl mean?
- Karl means a medieval Scandinavian freeman.
- What is karl in Tamil?
- Karl in Tamil is கார்ல். See Karl meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use karl in a sentence?
- Whether these were the karls or the thralls is the only problem, and I incline to think that there is little room for doubt that these were the karls.
- What part of speech is karl?
- Karl can be a noun or a proper noun.
- What is the plural of karl?
- The plural of karl is karls.
Words near karl in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: karl (page history and authors); Karl (page history and authors); karl (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); karl (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); karl (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); karl (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); karl (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Cite this entry: “karl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/karl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.