K - wikipedia This article is about the letter of the alphabet. For other uses, see K ( disambiguation ). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( April 2015 ) K k ( See below ) Usage Writing system Latin script Type Alphabetic and Logographic Language of origin Latin language Phonetic usage ( k ) ( kh ) ( kʼ ) ( ɡ ) / keɪ / Unicode value U + 004B, U + 006B Alphabetical position 11 History Development Κ κ κ 𐌊 K k Time period ~ - 700 to present Descendants K Ʞ ₭ k Sisters К כ ך ک ك ܟ ࠊ 𐎋 ከ Կ կ Հ հ Խ խ Variations ( See below ) Other Other letters commonly used with k ( x ) This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help : IPA. ISO basic Latin alphabet Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz K ( named kay / keɪ / ) is the eleventh letter of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive. Contents 1 History 2 Use in writing systems 2.1 English 2.2 Number 2.3 Other languages 2.4 Other systems 3 Related characters 3.1 Ancestors, descendants and siblings 3.2 Ligatures and abbreviations 4 Computing codes 5 Other representation 6 Other usage 7 References 8 External links History Egyptian hieroglyph D Proto - Semitic K Phoenician Etruscan K Greek Kappa The letter K comes from the Greek letter Κ ( kappa ), which was taken from the Semitic kap, the symbol for an open hand. This, in turn, was likely adapted by Semites who had lived in Egypt from the hieroglyph for `` hand '' representing D in the Egyptian word for hand, d-r-t. The Semites evidently assigned it the sound value / k / instead, because their word for hand started with that sound. In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters C, K and Q were all used to represent the sounds / k / and / g / ( which were not differentiated in writing ). Of these, Q was used to represent / k / or / g / before a rounded vowel, K before / a /, and C elsewhere. Later, the use of C and its variant G replaced most usages of K and Q. K survived only in a few fossilized forms such as Kalendae, `` the calends ''. After Greek words were taken into Latin, the Kappa was transliterated as a C. Loanwords from other alphabets with the sound / k / were also transliterated with C. Hence, the Romance languages generally use C and have K only in later loanwords from other language groups. The Celtic languages also tended to use C instead of K, and this influence carried over into Old English. Use in writing systems English Today, English is the only Germanic language to productively use `` hard '' ⟨ c ⟩ ( outside the digraph ⟨ ck ⟩ ) rather than ⟨ k ⟩ ( although Dutch uses it in loaned words of Latin origin, and the pronunciation of these words follows the same hard / soft distinction as in English ). The letter ⟨ k ⟩ is usually silent at the start of an English word when it comes before the letter ⟨ n ⟩, as in the words `` knight, '' `` knife, '' `` knot, '' `` know, '' and `` knee ''. Like J, X, Q, and Z, K is not used very frequently in English. It is the fifth least frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 0.8 % in words. Number The SI prefix for a thousand is kilo -, officially abbreviated as k -- for instance, prefixed to `` metre '' or its abbreviation m, kilometre or km signifies a thousand metres. As such, people occasionally represent numbers in a non-standard notation by replacing the last three zeros of the general numeral with `` K '' : for instance, 30K for 30,000. Other languages In most languages where it is employed, this letter represents the sound / k / ( with or without aspiration ) or some similar sound. Other systems The International Phonetic Alphabet uses ⟨ k ⟩ for the voiceless velar plosive. Related characters Ancestors, descendants and siblings 𐤊 : Semitic letter Kaph, from which the following symbols originally derive Κ κ / κ : Greek letter Kappa, from which K derives К к : Cyrillic letter Ka, also derived from Kappa K with diacritics : Ƙ ƙ Ꝁ ꝁ Ḱ ḱ Ǩ ǩ Ḳ ḳ Ķ ķ ᶄ Ⱪ ⱪ Ḵ ḵ The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of the letter K : U + 1D0B ᴋ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL K U + 1D37 K MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL K U + 1D4F k MODIFIER LETTER SMALL K k : Subscript small k was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902 Ʞ ʞ : Turned capital and small k were used in transcriptions of the Dakota language in publications of the American Board of Ethnology in the late 19th century. Turned small k was also used for a velar click in the International Phonetic Alphabet but its use was withdrawn in 1970. Ligatures and abbreviations ₭ : Lao kip Ꝃ ꝃ, Ꝅ ꝅ, Ꞣ ꞣ : Various forms of K were used for medieval scribal abbreviations Computing codes Character k K Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K LATIN SMALL LETTER K KELVIN SIGN Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex Unicode 75 U + 004B 107 U + 006B 8490 U + 212A UTF - 8 75 4B 107 6B 226 132 170 E2 84 AA Numeric character reference & # 75 ; & # x4B ; & # 107 ; & # x6B ; & # 8490 ; & # x212A ; EBCDIC family 210 D2 146 92 ASCII 75 4B 107 6B Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO - 8859 and nMacintosh families of encodings. Other representation NATO phonetic Morse code Kilo -- -- Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet ( ASL fingerspelling ) Braille dots - 13 Other usage `` K '' replacing `` C '' in satiric misspelling. K is the unit symbol for the kelvin, used to mesure thermodynamic temperature. K is the chemical symbol for the element potassium ( K is an abbreviation of kalium, the Latin name for potassium ). Triangle K. Unit prefix k, meaning 1000 times. K is the name of the principal character in Franz Kafka 's novel The Trial. In chess notation, the letter K represents the King ( WK for White King, BK for Black King ). In baseball scoring, the letter K is used to represent a strikeout. A forwards oriented K represents a `` strikeout swinging '' ; a backwards oriented K ( ) represents a `` strikeout looking ''. As abbreviation for OK, often used in emails and short text messages. K is used as a slang term for Ketamine among recreational drug users. In the CMYK color model, K represents black ink. In International Morse code it is used to mean `` over ''. In fracture mechanics, K is used to represent the stress intensity factor. In physics, k usually stands for Boltzmann 's constant K ( logic ). References Jump up ^ `` K '' Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition ( 1989 ) ; Merriam - Webster 's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged ( 1993 ) ; `` kay, '' op. cit. Jump up ^ `` K ''. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1977, online ( registration required ) Jump up ^ Gordon, Cyrus H. ( 1970 ). `` The Accidental Invention of the Phonemic Alphabet ''. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 29 ( 3 ) : 193. doi : 10.1086 / 372069. JSTOR 543451. Jump up ^ Sihler, Andrew L. ( 1995 ). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin ( illustrated ed. ). New York : Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 0 - 19 - 508345 - 8. Jump up ^ Everson, Michael ; et al. ( 2002 - 03 - 20 ). `` L2 / 02 - 141 : Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS '' ( PDF ). Jump up ^ Ruppel, Klaas ; Aalto, Tero ; Everson, Michael ( 2009 - 01 - 27 ). `` L2 / 09 - 028 : Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet '' ( PDF ). Jump up ^ Everson, Michael ; Jacquerye, Denis ; Lilley, Chris ( 2012 - 07 - 26 ). `` L2 / 12 - 270 : Proposal for the addition of ten Latin characters to the UCS '' ( PDF ). Jump up ^ Everson, Michael ; Baker, Peter ; Emiliano, António ; Grammel, Florian ; Haugen, Odd Einar ; Luft, Diana ; Pedro, Susana ; Schumacher, Gerd ; Stötzner, Andreas ( 2006 - 01 - 30 ). `` L2 / 06 - 027 : Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the UCS '' ( PDF ). Jump up ^ Stephen Phillips ( 2009 - 06 - 04 ). `` International Morse Code ''. External links Media related to K at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of K at Wiktionary The dictionary definition of k at Wiktionary Latin script History Spread Romanization Roman numerals Alphabets ( list ) Classical Latin alphabet ISO basic Latin alphabet phonetic alphabets International Phonetic Alphabet X-SAMPA Spelling alphabet Letters ( list ) Letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Letter K with diacritics Ḱḱ Ǩǩ Ķķ Ḳḳ Ḵḵ Ƙƙ Ⱪⱪ ᶄ Ꝁꝁ Ꝃꝃ Ꝅꝅ Ꞣꞣ Multigraphs Digraphs ch cz dž dz gh ij ll ly nh ny sh sz th Trigraphs dzs eau Tetragraphs ough Pentagraphs tzsch Keyboard layouts ( list ) QWERTY QWERTZ AZERTY Standards ISO / IEC 646 Unicode Western Latin character sets Lists precomposed Latin characters in Unicode letters used in mathematics Diacritics Palaeography Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=K&oldid=832149279 '' Categories : Graphemes ISO basic Latin letters Hidden categories : Pages with login required references or sources All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from September 2014 Wikipedia indefinitely move - protected pages Articles needing additional references from April 2015 All articles needing additional references All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015 Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Acèh Afrikaans Alemannisch አማርኛ Aragonés ܐܪܡܝܐ Asturianu Avañe'ẽ Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Чӑвашла Čeština Corsu Cymraeg Dansk Davvisámegiella Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Føroyskt Français Frysk Furlan Gaeilge Gaelg Gàidhlig Galego 贛 語 Хальмг 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Ido Ilokano Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Kaszëbsczi Kernowek Kiswahili Коми Kreyòl ayisyen Kurdî Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Lumbaart Magyar Македонски Malagasy मराठी Bahasa Melayu Mìng - dĕ̤ng - ngṳ̄ မြန်မာဘာသာ Nāhuatl Nederlands 日本 語 Nordfriisk Norsk Norsk nynorsk Nouormand Occitan Олык марий Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Polski Português Română Runa Simi Русский Scots Seeltersk Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Sranantongo Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Basa Sunda Suomi Svenska Tagalog Татарча / tatarça ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Vepsän kel ' Tiếng Việt Volapük Winaray ייִדיש Yorùbá 粵語 Zazaki Žemaitėška 中文 104 more Edit links This page was last edited on 24 March 2018, at 03 : 22. 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Question: in fracture mechanics the symbol k stands for
Answer: the stress intensity factor