Slang Beginning with K
In this lesson, we cover essential American slang starting with letter K with examples. In general, slang are used mostly in casual street talks among Americans such that even international (non-native) speakers living in the USA can not understand them. Thus, you may use slang in your daily casual conversations especially with Americans. Just be careful and do NOT use slang in formal conversations like job interviews or business meetings.
Slang Recap
In our previous lesson, we covered American Slang Beginning with J.
Word of the Day: K
K: 1000 (usually an amount of money)
He made 100K last year as a lawyer. (100K = $100,000)
karma: an idea that one’s good or bad behavior can be spread from one person to the next.
There’s been a lot of bad karma going around the office these days since Alice started gossiping about the boss.
keel over: fall over from sickness; to suddenly die.
I felt like I was going to keel over after eating that turkey. It wasn’t cooked long enough.
kibosh, put the _____ on: to stop something; to end quickly.
It was a great party until the police arrived and put the kibosh on all the fun we were having.
kick: to stop doing something.
It’s very hard to kick smoking if you’ve done it your entire life because nicotine is addictive.
kick in: to contribute, usually money.
We’re all kicking in a little bit of money for Jose because his mother died and he needs to return to Mexico.
kick it: to spend time with someone; to hang out.
Instead of going out with the boys, Reggie was kicking it with his girlfriend last night.
kicks: laughs; amusement; fun,
Just for kicks, let’s so what happens if we put a live mouse in Maria’s apartment.
kill: 1. to use something completely; to finish; 2. to get extremely angry at someone and express anger.
1. Let’s kill these beers and go somewhere else.
2. Henry’s father is going to kill him after he sees what happened to the car.
killer: something really good.
This pizza is killer! We have to come to this place more often.
kink: a mistake.
A winter storm put a kink into our family’s travel plans. We had to take a different flight, and we lost a day of vacation.
klutz: a clumsy person; someone who makes a lot of physical errors.
Tom is such a klutz, his mother never lets him go into stores with a lot of breakable items.
knock: insult
You say you don’t like to ice skate? But you’ve never gone ice skating before. Don’t knock it until you try it.
knockout: a beautiful woman.
The police officer who gave me a ticket was a knockout. She could probably get a job as a model.
know-it-all: someone who is very smart or who pretends to know the answer to everything. (not a good thing to be)
If she wasn’t the biggest know-it-all in the school, she’d have more friends.
knucklehead: someone who does dumb things.
The knucklehead who made my sandwich forgot to put the meat in it.
kook: a crazy person.
Our next door neighbor is quite a kook. He really believes that the world is going to be invaded by people from outer space within the next year.
kosher: something that is okay; something that meets proper guidelines. (originally used to describe food approved for consumption by Jewish people who practice their faith)
I don’t think it’s kosher to put ketchup on eggs, but some people do it.
Next Slang Lesson
In our next lesson, we will cover American Slang Beginning with L.
Related Slang Lessons
None
English Slang Outline
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