karen
/ˈkæɹən/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.09 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A female given name from Danish.
noun
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.
Derogatory; Slang
name
A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).
noun
A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.
name
A group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by people of the Karen ethnic group, also called Karenic.
Example Sentences
- "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!"
- "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."
- "“There’s a sense of betrayal,” said the former Hamtramck mayor Karen Majewski, who is Polish American."
- "“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."
- "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."
- "“If I lived Chloe’s life, where she was walking around with other wealthy people basically being upper-class Karens having a fit when their dogs aren’t allowed at yoga, then I might understand,” he said."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Karen, 𐭊𐭓𐭍𐭉, *kar-ina-, Կարեն, ကရင်