40 Adjectives That Start With K
K is one of the smallest letters in English, and a striking share of what it has sits in one cluster: 17 of the 40 adjectives below begin kn-, a spelling that preserves a k dropped from standard English pronunciation during the seventeenth century — though the cluster survives in some Scots dialects, and was recorded in northern England as late as the nineteenth.
This page lists 40 adjectives that start with K, counting only dictionary adjectives: no proper adjectives, no nouns used in front of another noun, and nothing coined to lengthen the list.
6 of them carry an informal or slang label in Merriam-Webster or Oxford — kaput, keyed up, kinky, klutzy, knackered and kooky — and the informal sense of kosher is labelled too. Worth knowing before you use one in something formal.
All 40 adjectives at a glance
Every word on this page in one block. Each is defined further down.
kaleidoscopic, kaput, karmic, keen, kempt, ketogenic, keyed up, keyless, khaki, kid-glove, kind, kindhearted, kindly, kindred, kinetic, king-size, kingly, kinky, kitschy, kittenish, klutzy, knackered, knavish, knee-deep, knee-high, knee-jerk, knee-length, knifelike, knightly, knobby, knock-kneed, knockout, knotty, knowable, knowing, knowledgeable, known, knurled, kooky, kosher
Positive
Praise-side words. Kempt is the curiosity: almost nobody uses it, though everybody uses unkempt, and it is a genuine dictionary headword rather than a joke.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| keen | eager, and quick to take an interest |
| kempt | tidy and cared for |
| kind | considerate, and disposed to do good |
| kindhearted | tender and sympathetic by nature |
| kindly | gentle and well-meaning in manner |
| kindred | alike in spirit, or related by blood |
| kingly | grand enough to suit a king |
| knightly | honourable in the old chivalric sense |
| knowable | able to be found out or understood |
| knowledgeable | well informed on a subject |
Negative
Criticism-side words, and there are few of them. Knee-jerk is the one to reach for most often, and Oxford marks it disapproving: it says a reaction was automatic and, in saying so, says it was not thought through.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| kaput | informally, broken and beyond repair |
| kitschy | cheaply sentimental in taste |
| klutzy | clumsy, in American informal use |
| knavish | dishonest, in the manner of a knave |
| knee-jerk | reacting automatically, without thought |
| knotty | tangled enough to be hard to resolve |
Manner and circumstance
How someone is placed or how they come across. Knackered and kooky are informal and should stay out of anything official; known is the quiet one, and does more work than it looks like doing.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| keyed up | tense with anticipation, informally |
| kittenish | playfully coy |
| knackered | worn out, in British informal use |
| knowing | deliberate, or hinting at inside knowledge |
| known | generally recognised |
| kooky | eccentric in a likeable way |
Physical appearance
Almost entirely the knee and the colour khaki. Knobby is the exception, and it works for knuckles, tree roots and old furniture equally. The three knee words are not interchangeable: you stand knee-deep in something, a knee-high thing is that tall, and a knee-length thing is cut to end there.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| khaki | of a light yellowish brown |
| knee-deep | sunk to the knees in something, or as deep as that |
| knee-high | standing as tall as a knee, and so very small |
| knee-length | cut to end at the knee, of a garment |
| knobby | lumpy with projecting joints or bumps |
| knock-kneed | with knees that turn inward |
Everyday and descriptive
Objects, materials and technical senses. Kid-glove is the one worth knowing: it comes from kid leather, the skin of a young goat, and now describes handling something with extreme care or deference.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| kaleidoscopic | shifting constantly in pattern and colour |
| karmic | relating to the consequences of past action |
| ketogenic | causing the body to produce ketones |
| keyless | needing no key to open or start |
| kid-glove | marked by extreme care or deference |
| kinetic | of or produced by motion |
| king-size | made larger than the standard size |
| kinky | full of tight twists; informally, and often disapprovingly, sexually unconventional |
| knifelike | thin and tapering to a cutting edge |
| knockout | delivering a blow that ends the fight, or sensationally attractive |
| knurled | gnarled, or ridged on the surface to give a grip |
| kosher | sanctioned by Jewish law; informally, above board |
Using them in a sentence
A list is only half the job. These show the words carrying weight rather than sitting decoratively in front of a noun.
- The grass was knee-high and the fence kaput.
- He gave a knee-jerk answer, then a knowledgeable one, and the second took longer.
- The room was kempt, the welcome kindly, and neither was quite sincere.
- A knowing look from someone known to everyone in the room.
- The pattern was kaleidoscopic, the frame knurled, and neither was to my taste.
Words people get wrong
| Pair | The difference that matters |
|---|---|
| kind / kindly | Kind describes the disposition; kindly describes the manner. A kind person can be brusque, and a kindly manner can be worn by someone who is not kind at all. Kindly is also an adverb, which is where most of the confusion comes from. |
| kindred / kindly | Related further back than they look: both descend from Old English cynn, family, which also gives kin. The meanings have long since separated. Kindred means akin — a kindred spirit is one like your own — and has nothing to do with kindness. |
| knowledgeable / knowledgable | One word and one misspelling, common enough to look like a variant. Merriam-Webster and Oxford record only knowledgeable, with the e. The rule is the reverse of what it looks like. English normally drops a silent e before -able — argue gives arguable, move gives movable, use gives usable. The e is kept only after a soft c or g, where it is what keeps the consonant soft: noticeable, manageable, and knowledgeable. |
| kudos / kudo | Not adjectives, but the K-word most often got wrong. Kudos came into English as a Greek mass noun meaning credit or praise, so “kudos is due” is correct and “a kudos” is not. It looks plural, and the back-formed singular kudo now appears often enough that dictionaries record it — but most editors still read it as a mistake. |
| knit / knitted | Neither is on this page, and both are correct. Merriam-Webster headwords the adjective as knit with knitted as a variant; Oxford does it the other way round, heading knitted and noting knit. Neither marks the choice as British or American, whatever style guides may tell you. Fixed compounds take knit: close-knit, never close-knitted. |
Related guides
- Adjectives for kind — the fuller vocabulary behind kind and kindhearted.
- Adjectives for kindness — for the quality rather than the person.
- Adjectives for a kiss — where kittenish and keen get used.
- Adjectives for a kitchen — for king-size, keyless and the rest of the household set.
- Adjectives for kindergarten — a subject vocabulary this short letter cannot cover on its own.
- Adjectives for a kangaroo — for kinetic and the animal descriptors.
Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.
