Keen vs. Ken — What's the Difference?

Having or showing eagerness or enthusiasm

Perception; understanding

(of a sense) highly developed

Range of vision.

(of the edge or point of a blade) sharp

View; sight.

(of activity or feeling) intense

To know (a person or thing).

Excellent

To recognize.

Wail in grief for a dead person

To have knowledge or an understanding.

An Irish funeral song accompanied by wailing in lamentation for the dead.

(obsolete) To give birth, conceive, beget, be born; to develop (as a fetus); to nourish, sustain (as life).

Having a fine, sharp cutting edge or point.

To know, perceive or understand.

Having or marked by intellectual quickness and acuity.

To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.

Acutely sensitive

Knowledge, perception, or sight.

Sharp; vivid; strong

(nautical) Range of sight.

Intense or bracing

A house, especially a den of thieves.

Pungent; acrid

(Jewish) Youth or children's group.

Ardent; enthusiastic

A Japanese unit of length equal to six shakus

Eagerly desirous

The tsurugi

(Slang) Great; splendid; fine

A house; esp., one which is a resort for thieves.

A loud wailing or lament for the dead.

Cognizance; view; especially, reach of sight or knowledge.

To wail in lamentation, especially for the dead.

To know; to understand; to take cognizance of.

Often with a prepositional phrase, or with to and an infinitive: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness; eager, enthusiastic, interested.

To recognize; to descry; to discern.

Fierce, intense, vehement.

To look around.

Having a fine edge or point; sharp.

Range of what one can know or understand;

Acute of mind, having or expressing mental acuteness; penetrating, sharp.

The range of vision;

Acrimonious, bitter, piercing.

Of cold, wind, etc.: cutting, penetrating, piercing, sharp.

(Britain) Of prices, extremely low as to be competitive.

Marvelous.

(obsolete) Brave, courageous; audacious, bold.

To make cold, to sharpen.

(transitive) To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.

(transitive) To mourn.

A prolonged wail for a deceased person.

Sharp; having a fine edge or point; as, a keen razor, or a razor with a keen edge.

Acute of mind; sharp; penetrating; having or expressing mental acuteness; as, a man of keen understanding; a keen look; keen features.

Bitter; piercing; acrimonious; cutting; stinging; severe; as, keen satire or sarcasm.

Piercing; penetrating; cutting; sharp; - applied to cold, wind, etc.; as, a keen wind; the cold is very keen.

Eager; vehement; fierce; as, a keen appetite.

Wonderful; delightful; marvelous; as, that would be keen.

To sharpen; to make cold.

To wail as a keener does.

A prolonged wail for a deceased person. Cf. Coranach.

A funeral lament sung with loud wailing

Express grief verbally;

Having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions;

Intense or sharp;

Very penetrating and clear and sharp in operation;

Very good;

As physically painful as if caused by a sharp instrument;

Having a sharp cutting edge or point;