karass

K5A1R1A1S1S1

noun

A network or group of people who are somehow affiliated or linked spiritually.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

nounkarass (plural karasses)

plural karasses

  1. A network or group of people who are somehow affiliated or linked spiritually.

    We Bokononists believe that humanity is organized into teams, teams that do God's Will without ever discovering what they are doing. Such a team is called a karass by Bokonon […]

    1963, Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
    3 more examples

    I do want to go to Arlinghurst, even though it's moronic and awful and there's no privacy at all, because I have started to build my karass there. I have the book club,I have the library—both libraries.

    2012, Jo Walton, Among Others, →ISBN

    Like all complex systems of this type, each “karass” has its own history (see Chapter 1, 1.2). This history is a selected and saved internal ethos of organization based on both social relations and common activity experience.

    2013, Felix Lebed, Michael Bar-Eli, Complexity and Control in Team Sports: Dialectics in Contesting Human Systems, Routledge, →ISBN, page 128

    I think you may be the only good person in the whole karass. Or maybe you and Anita. I'm still not sure about her.” “Karass?” “Oh, it's Andy's thing. Well, Kurt Vonnegut's thing. It's a group of people who are connected, but, like, spiritually.

    2015, Tommy Wallach, We All Looked Up, →ISBN, page 276

Origin

Coined by American writer Kurt Vonnegut in 1963, in the novel Cat's Cradle.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

karass. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/karass

MLA

“karass.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/karass. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “karass,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/karass.

Source: karass on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.