# List of acronyms: K

This list contains acronyms, initialisms, and pseudo-blends that begin with the letter K.
For the purposes of this list:
* acronym = an abbreviation pronounced as if it were a word, e.g., SARS = severe acute respiratory syndrome, pronounced to rhyme with cars
* initialism = an abbreviation pronounced wholly or partly using the names of its constituent letters, e.g., CD = compact disc, pronounced cee dee
* pseudo-blend = an abbreviation whose extra or omitted letters mean that it cannot stand as a true acronym, initialism, or portmanteau (a word formed by combining two or more words).
    (a) = acronym, e.g.: SARS – (a) severe acute respiratory syndrome
    (i) = initialism, e.g.: CD – (i) compact disc
    (p) = pseudo-blend, e.g.: UNIFEM – (p) United Nations Development Fund for Women
    (s) = symbol (none of the above, representing and pronounced as something else; for example: MHz – megahertz)
Some terms are spoken as either acronym or initialism, e.g., VoIP, pronounced both as voyp and V-O-I-P.
(Main list of acronyms)

## Contents

* Top
* K0–9 KA KB KC KD KE KF KG KH KI KJ KK KL KM KN KO KP KQ KR KS KT KU KV KW KX KY KZ
* k – (s) kilo-
* K – (s) kelvin – potassium (Latin kalium) – tanker (aircraft designation code)

## K0–9

* K9 – (p) canine police unit

## KA

* ka – (s) Georgian language (ISO 639-1 code)
* kA – (s) kiloampere
* Ka – (s) Kamov Design Bureau
* KA – (i) knowledge acquisition – (s) Karnataka (Indian state code)
* KAF – (i/a) Kandahar Air Field
* KAGB (German law) – (i) Kapitalanlagegesetzbuch or the German Capital Investment Code
* kal – (s) Kalaallisut language (ISO 639-2 code)
* kan – (s) Kannada language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KANUKOKA – (a) Kalaallit Nunaanni Kommunit Kattuffiannit (Kalaallisut, "Greenlandic Communities Association")
* KARNAC – (a) Knowledge Aided Retrieval in Activity Context
* KARR – (a) Knight automated roving robot (Knight Rider character)
* kas – (s) Kashmiri language (ISO 639-2 code)
* kat – (s) Georgian language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KATUSA – (a) Korean augmentation to United States Army
* kau – (s) Kanuri language (ISO 639-2 code)
* kaz – (s) Kazakh language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KAZ – (s) Kazakhstan (ISO 3166 trigram)

## KB

* KBE – (i) Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
* KBO – (i) Kuiper Belt Object
* KBVB – (i) Koninklijke Belgische Voetbalbond (Dutch for Royal Belgian Football Association)

## KC

* kC – (s) kilocoulomb
* KCK
** (i) Kansas City, Kansas
** Koma Civakên Kurdistan (Kurdish, "Union of Communities in Kurdistan")
* KCL – (i) King's College London
* KCMO – (p) Kansas City, Missouri (pronounced "K-C-Moe")
* KCN - (s) potassium cyanide
* KCS – (s) Kansas City Southern Railway (AAR reporting mark)

## KD

* KD – (i) Kawasaki disease – Kraft Dinner

## KE

* KE
** (s) Kenya (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
** (i) kinetic energy
** knowledge engineering
* KEDO – (a) Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization
* KEN – (s) Kenya (ISO 3166 trigram)
* KERA – (a) Kentucky Education Reform Act (of 1990)
* kerma – (p) kinetic energy released in material / in matter / per unit mass
* KERS - (a) kinetic energy recovery system (pronounced Kah-Z)
* KES
** (s) Kenyan shilling (ISO 4217 currency code)
** (i) Killer Elite Squad (Japanese professional wrestling stable)
* KESR – (i) Kent and East Sussex Railway
* KET
** (i) Kentucky Educational Television
** (a) Key English Test

## KF

* kF – (s) kilofarad
* KFC – (i) Kentucky Fried Chicken
* KFOR – (p) UN Kosovo Force
* KFUPM – King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

## KG

* kg – (s) kilogram – Kongo language (ISO 639-1 code)
* KG
** (s) Kyrgyzstan (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
** (s) Knight of the Order of the Garter
* KGB – (i) Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Russian "Committee for State Security") (1954–1991)
* KGO – Knight of the Guelphic Order of Hanover
* KGS – (s) Kyrgyz som (ISO 4217 currency code)
* KGZ – (s) Kyrgyzstan (ISO 3166 trigram)

## KH

* kH – (s) kilohenry
* KH – (s) Cambodia (ISO 3166 digram)
* khm – (s) Khmer language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KHL – (i) Kontinental Hockey League
* KHM – (s) Cambodia (ISO 3166 trigram)
* KHP — (s) Honorary Physician to the King (UK)
* KHR – (s) Cambodian riel (ISO 4217 currency code)
* KHz – (s) kilohertz

## KI

* ki – (s) Gikuyu language (ISO 639-1 code)
* Ki – (s) Kibi
* KI – (s) Kiribati (ISO 3166 digram)
* KIA – (i) killed in action
* kik – (s) Gikuyu language (ISO 639-2 code), common typo for LOL
* kin – (s) Kinyarwanda language (ISO 639-2 code)
* kir – (s) Kyrgyz language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KIR – (s) Kiribati (ISO 3166 trigram)
* KISS – (a) keep it simple, stupid / keep it short and simple – Korean Intelligence Support System
* KITECH – (p) Korean Institute of Industrial Technology
* KITT – (a) Knight Industries Two Thousand – Knight Industries Three Thousand

## KJ

* kj – (s) Kuanyama language (ISO 639-1 code)
* kJ – (s) kilojoule

## KK

* kk – (s) Kazakh language (ISO 639-1 code)
* kK – (s) kilokelvin
* KK
** (i) Kabushiki kaisha (Japanese for "stock company", found in the legal names of countless Japanese corporations)
** Košarkarski klub (Slovenian), Košarkaški Klub (Croatian and Serbian in Latin script), Кошаркашки клуб (Serbian Cyrillic), Krepšinio Klubas (Lithuanian); all mean "Basketball Club", as in KK Olimpija, KK Cibona, KK Partizan, and KK Atletas
* KKK – (i) Ku Klux Klan

## KL

* kl – (s) Kalaallisut language (ISO 639-1 code)
* kL – (s) kilolitre
* KL – (i) Kuala Lumpur – (s) Kerala (Indian state code)
* KLENOT – (p) KLEť observatory near Earth and other unusual objects observations team and telescope
* KLM – (i) Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (Dutch "Royal Dutch Airlines")
* KLOC – (a) kilo lines of code
* KLS
** (i) Kleine–Levin syndrome
** Košarkaška liga Srbije (Latin) or Кошаркашка лига Србије (Cyrillic) (Serbian, "Basketball League of Serbia")
** Kuala Lumpur Sentral

## KM

* km – (s) Khmer language (ISO 639-1 code) – kilometre
* KM – (s) Comoros – (i) knowledge management
* KMF – (s) Comoro franc (ISO 4217 currency code)
* KMFDM – (i) Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit (German "No pity for the majority" music band)
* KMR – (i) Kwajalein Missile Range

## KN

* kn – (s) Kannada language (ISO 639-1 code)
* kN – (s) kilonewton
* KN – (s) Democratic People's Republic of Korea (FIPS 10-4 country code) – Saint Kitts and Nevis (ISO 3166 digram)
* KNA – (s) Saint Kitts and Nevis (ISO 3166 trigram)
* KNVB – (i) Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond (Dutch for Royal Dutch Football Association)

## KO

* ko – (s) Korean language (ISO 639-1 code)
* KO – (i) Knocked Out
* kom – (s) Komi language (ISO 639-2 code)
* kon – (s) Kongo language (ISO 639-2 code)
* kor – (s) Korean language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KOR – (s) Republic of Korea (ISO 3166 trigram)

## KP

* KP – (i) Kim Possible
* KPMG – (i) Klynveld, Peat, Marwick, Goerdeler
* KPNO – (i) Kitt Peak National Observatory
* KPV – (i) Krupnokaliberniy Pulemet Vladimorova (Russian КПВТ Крупнокалиберный Пулемет Владимирова, "Large-Calibre Machinegun Vladimirov")
* KPVT – (i) Krupnokaliberniy Pulemet Vladimorova Tankoviy (Russian КПВТ Крупнокалиберный Пулемет Владимирова Танковый, "Large-Calibre Machinegun Vladimirov Tank")
* KPW – (s) North Korean won (ISO 4217 currency code)
* K–Pg – (i) Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary
* K/Pg – (i) Cretaceous/Paleogene Boundary

## KQ

* KQ – (s) Kenya Airways (IATA airline designator) – Kingman Reef (FIPS 10-4 territory code)

## KR

* kr – (s) Kanuri language (ISO 639-1 code)
* Kr – (s) Krypton
* KR – (s) Kiribati (FIPS 10-4 country code) – Republic of Korea (ISO 3166 digram)
* KRW – (s) South Korean won (ISO 4217 currency code)

## KS

* ks
** (s) Kashmiri language (ISO 639-1 code)
** kilosecond
* kS – (s) kilosiemens
* KS
** (s) Kansas (postal symbol)
** Republic of Korea (FIPS 10-4 country code)
* KSC – (i) Kennedy Space Center
* KSI – (i) Killed or Seriously Injured
* KSM
** (i) Korean Service Medal
** Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
* KSU
** (i) Kansas State University
** Kennesaw State University

## KT

* kT – (s) kilotesla
* KT – (s) Christmas Island (FIPS 10-4 territory code) – (i) Knight of the Order of the Thistle – Knights Templar
* K–T – (i) Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary
* K/T – (i) Cretaceous/Tertiary Boundary
* KTS – (i) Knight of the Tower and Sword (of Portugal)

## KU

* ku – (s) Kurdish language (ISO 639-1 code)
* KU
** (s) Kuwait (FIPS 10-4 country code)
** (i/p) University of Kansas
* kua – (s) Kuanyama language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KUL – (i) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Flemish, Catholic University of Leuven)
* kur – (s) Kurdish language (ISO 639-2 code)
* KUW – (s) Kuwait (UNDP country code, IOC and FIFA trigram, but not ISO 3166)

## KV

* kv – (s) Komi language (ISO 639-1 code)
* kV – (s) kilovolt
* KV - (s) Kosovo
* KV – (s) Kavminvodyavia (IATA airline designator) – (i) Kendriya Vidhyalaya (Indian school) – Kliment Voroshilov (tanks) – Köchel-Verzeichnis (Mozart catalogue) – Valley of the Kings (originally "Kings' Valley")
* KVM – (i) Keyboard, Video, Mouse switch
* KVT – (i) Killer-Victim Table (military simulations)

## KW

* kw – (s) Cornish language (ISO 639-1 code)
* kW – (s) kilowatt
* KW – (s) Kuwait (ISO 3166 digram)
* KWB – Kids' WB!
* KWD – (s) Kuwaiti dinar (ISO 4217 currency code)
* KWT – (s) Kuwait (ISO 3166 trigram)

## KX

* KX – (s) Cayman Airways (IATA airline designator)

## KY

* ky – (s) Kyrgyz language (ISO 639-1 code)
* KY
** (s) Cayman Islands (ISO 3166 digram)
** Kentucky (postal symbol)
* KYD – (s) Cayman Islands dollar (ISO 4217 currency code)
* KYTC – (p) Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

## KZ

* KZ – (s) Kazakhstan (FIPS 10-4 country code; ISO 3166 digram)
* KZN – (i) KwaZulu-Natal
* KZT – (s) Kazakh tenge (ISO 4217 currency code)