karen

plural karens

1. Alternative letter-case form of Karen (“(derogatory) any person, especially female, exhibiting an exaggerated sense of entitlement”).

alternative Caren · alternative Caron · alternative Caryn · alternative Karin · alternative Karyn

1. A female given name from Danish.

   “There’s a sense of betrayal,” said the former Hamtramck mayor Karen Majewski, who is Polish American.

   2023 June 17, Tom Perkins, “‘A sense of betrayal’: liberal dismay as Muslim-led US city bans Pride flags”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2023

   2 more examples

   Left you a lover in that far land, / O Karen sad, that you pine so long! / Would I could unravel and understand / That sorrowful, sweet Norwegian song!

   1878 Celia Thaxter, Drift-Weed, Houghton, Osgood,1878, page 28 ("Karen")

   I was not called Karen after Hans Andersen's dancing girl, but after a Danish friend of my mother's who married an Englishman and was my godmother. So much for our family affairs.

   1918 Cecily Ullman Sidgwick, Karen, W.Collins, 1918, page 12

plural Karens · alternative Caren · alternative Caron · alternative Caryn · alternative Karin · alternative Karyn

1. derogatoryslangA middle-aged white woman who demonstrates a pronounced sense of white privilege and entitlement, often grounded in prejudice toward racial minorities, and who frequently targets or antagonizes individuals facing greater systemic barriers or requiring substantially greater effort to attain comparable opportunities.

   “If I lived Chloe’s life, where she was walking around with other wealthy people basically being upper-class Karens having a fit when their dogs aren’t allowed at yoga, then I might understand,” he said.

   2024 February 2, Alaina Demopoulos, quoting Jeremy, “‘I’m annoying, to some degree’: New York’s dog owners debate Chloë Sevigny’s anti-pup take”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   3 more examples

   “I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence,” he wrote. “That’s when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn,” he said, using the name that has become slang for an entitled white woman.

   2020 May 26, Sarah Maslin Nir, quoting Christian Cooper, “White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park”, in The New York Times

   It was through that performance that Amy Cooper took on the mantle of an American archetype: the white woman who weaponizes her vulnerability to exact violence upon a Black man. […] In 2020, she is simply Karen.

   2020 December 27, Julia Carrie Wong, “The year of Karen: how a meme changed the way Americans talked about racism”, in The Guardian

   He plays a suburban homeowner who loves nothing more than to snitch on his fellow whites, calling the cops on any Caucasian who steps foot on his lawn, be they old lady, a girl scout, or Colin Jost. Charlie xcx gets in on the action as his proud Karen of a wife.

   2024 November 17, Zach Vasquez, “Saturday Night Live: Charli xcx has fun in otherwise middle of the road episode”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Antonyms: anti-Karen

2. broadlyderogatoryAny person, especially female, exhibiting an exaggerated sense of entitlement.

   This Karen threatened to get me fired if I didn't give her a free meal.

   1 more example

   2021 Adam Korson as Phil Orley in "Ft. Ghost Child", episode five of SurrealEstate The organization wasn't meeting my needs, so I became a total Karen and asked to see the manager. He wasn't available so I took my business elsewhere.

alternative Garen · alternative Kārēn · alternative Qarin · alternative Qārin · alternative Karin · alternative Kārin

1. historicalOne of the seven great Parthian feudal families.
2. A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).

   Synonyms: Karen-Pahlav, Karen-Pahlaw

plural Karens

1. A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.

   There are more than a hundred such groups, including the Karen of Thailand and Burma; the Kachin in Burma; the Akha, the Lahu, and the Lisu in Thailand; the Hmong, the Kmhmu, and the Yao in Laos; and the Nùng and the Lati in Vietnam.

   2011, Terry Miller, Sean Williams, The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music, page 303

   1 more example

   U Nu's government was Socialist with a program of nationalization. But it had to fight for survival against almost universal disorder complicated by a Communist rebellion, a Karen rising, which was far more serious, and, in 1950, the arrival from Yünnan of General Li Mi's Kuomintang division after its rout by the Chinese Communists.

   1968, Daniel George Edward Hall, “Burma”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 4, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 442, column 2

   Synonyms: Kayin

1. A group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by people of the Karen ethnic group, also called Karenic.
2. Former name of Kayin (“state (administrative division) of Myanmar”).