Word.ws English Dictionary

karn

karn noun: a pile of rocks.

Noun

karn (plural karns)

  1. (dated) A pile of rocks.
    • Besides the single bason above-mention'd, I could not perceive one in all the rocks; but in a Karn below, overlooking, and it's sides almost perpendicular to the sea, I saw many furrows and clefts crossing the surface of the upper rocks; this lower-most Karn is call'd in the Cornish tongue...1754, William Borlase, Observations on the Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall, page 132
    • This gorseddau lies opposite to a karn of rocks, which is called the Cheese-wring.1816, Richard Polwhele, The History of Cornwall, Civil, Military, Religious, Architectural, Agricultural, Commercial, Biographical, and Miscellaneous, page 30

Proper noun capitalized: Karn

Karn (plural Karns)

  1. A surname.

Forms of karn

Noun
pluralkarns
Proper noun
pluralKarns

Origin of karn

Borrowed from Cornish karn. Doublet of cairn.

Words that rhyme with karn

Questions about karn

What does karn mean?
Karn means a pile of rocks.
What part of speech is karn?
Karn can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of karn?
The plural of karn is karns.

Words near karn in the dictionary

  1. karmitoxin
  2. karmitoxins
  3. Karmo
  4. Karmy
  5. Karmøy
  6. karn
  7. Karna
  8. Karnack
  9. Karnak
  10. karnal
  11. Karnali

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: karn (page history and authors); Karn (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.

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Cite this entry: “karn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/karn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.