Smattering vs Ken - What's the difference?
smattering | ken |
A superficial or shallow knowledge of a subject.
A small number or amount of something.
Knowledge or perception.
Range of sight.
To know, perceive or understand.
To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.
* 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):
* Addison
* Shakespeare
(slang, UK, obsolete) A house, especially a den of thieves.
English irregular verbs
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As nouns the difference between smattering and ken
is that smattering is a superficial or shallow knowledge of a subject while ken is knowledge or perception or ken can be (slang|uk|obsolete) a house, especially a den of thieves.As verbs the difference between smattering and ken
is that smattering is while ken is to know, perceive or understand.smattering
English
Noun
- She knows a smattering of Greek, but not enough to carry on a conversation.
- There’s only a smattering of people who oppose the second amendment.
Synonyms
* (small amount) see also .Verb
(head)Anagrams
*ken
English
Etymology 1
Northern and Scottish dialects from (etyl) . The noun meaning “range of sight” is a nautical abbreviation of present participle kenning.Noun
(-)Usage notes
In common usage a (fossil word), found only in the phrase .Coordinate terms
* (nautical range of sight) (l)Quotations
* (English Citations of "ken")Verb
- I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of [the telescope] upon the round-top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off.
- We ken them from afar.''
- 'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gait.