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kern

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kern¹

  • /kɜːn/ UK
  • /kɝn/ US

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

From Middle English curn, cooren, variant forms of Middle English corn, see English corn and also Dutch kern, Old High German kerno, cherno, Middle High German kerne, kern, German Kern (“core, kernel”), Old Norse kjarni, Icelandic kjarni, Danish kjerne, Swedish kärna (“core, kernel”); see also kernel.

noun kerns · kirn · curn

  1. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable A corn; grain; kernel.
  2. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable The last handful or sheaf reaped at the harvest.
  3. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable The harvest home.
  4. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable A doll or figurine raised in celebration of a successful harvest; kern-baby.

kern²

  • /kɜːn/ UK
  • /kɝn/ US

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

From French carne (“corner; projecting angle; quill of a pen”), from Latin cardinem (“hinge”) or from Etymology 1. The verb is a back-formation from kerned, which is from the noun. Doublet of cardo.

noun kerns · kerne

  1. Any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter. A few types have a portion of the face letter projecting over the body, as in the letter f ; this projection is called the kern, and in combination with other letters the projecting part generally extends over the next letter, as in fe. In those combinations, wherein the kern would come in contact w

verb kerns · kerning · kerned · kerne

  1. To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters (characters or glyphs); to perform such adjustments to a portion of text, according to preset rules. If you need to kern anything beyond the most commonly used pairs, you can use applications software such as Adobe PageMaker to customize pairs.

kern³

  • /kɜːn/ UK
  • /kɝn/ US

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

From Middle English kerne, from Middle Irish ceithern. Doublet of quaternion.

noun kerns · kerne

  1. archaic, historical A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; in archaic contexts often used as a term of contempt. O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your strait strossers.
  2. Ireland, obsolete A boor; a low person. Yet it was held that the testimony of the common beadle of the parish, an officer of police, a vulgar, stupid kern, who stood before your own eyes, a very dolt to look on, in all the stark-staring hebetude of just wit enough to be spiteful—was to be credited as to the sense and meaning of an oration
  3. UK, obsolete An idler; a vagabond. The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here.

kern⁴

  • /kɜːn/ UK
  • /kɝn/ US

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

noun kerns

  1. alternative Alternative form of quern

kern⁵

  • /kɜːn/ UK
  • /kɝn/ US

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

noun kerns

  1. A churn.

Kern⁶

  • /kɝn/ US
  • /kɜːn/ UK

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)n

Where it comes from

The unincorporated community in Missouri is named after Robert Kern. The Kern River is named after Edward Kern.

proper noun Keirn

  1. A surname.
  2. An unincorporated community in Macon County, Missouri, United States.
  3. A river in California, United States.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: core, cairn, cupid, kieran, foxworth, kem, kirn, nucleus, heart, seed, grain, kernel, pith, marrow, gist, essence

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Cite this
MLA

"kern." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/kern. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

kern. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/kern

Chicago

"kern." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/kern.

BibTeX
@misc{kern_2026,
  title = {kern},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/kern},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}