King

How to spell king

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce king

What does king mean?

1. nounThe male hereditary ruler of an independent state, especially one who inherits the position.
2. nounThe most important piece in chess, which moves one square in any direction and must be protected from checkmate.
3. nounA playing card bearing the figure of a king, ranking just above the queen.

King in a sentence

• The king signed the new law before parliament met.

• She trapped his king in the corner and won the game.

• He drew the king of hearts on the final turn.

• Crowds lined the route to see the king ride past.

• A careful player keeps the king shielded behind its pawns.

• The king beats the queen in most card games.

Where does king come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

King is a thoroughly native English word that comes from the Old English cyning, meaning a ruler or sovereign. It traces back to a reconstructed Germanic form, cuningaz, and most scholars connect it to the root that also gives us kin, so a king was originally something like the head of the kindred or the man of noble birth who led his people. Close relatives survive across the Germanic languages, such as German Konig and Dutch koning, which share the same ancient family. Over the centuries the spelling was smoothed from cyning to cyng and finally to the modern king, while the meaning stayed centred on the supreme male ruler of a realm. The short, blunt spelling is a clue to its deep age: it is one of the everyday words English kept from its earliest layer rather than borrowing from Latin or French.

How the word is built

• king (a single Germanic root meaning ruler or sovereign; historically tied to kin, the people or family one leads)