Karen.
A female given name from Danish.
Meaning & usage
A female given name from Danish.
Where this word comes from
From Danish Karen, a vernacular form of Catherine that arose in medieval Denmark. The sense "middle-aged woman" comes from the popularity of the name among baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The derogatory usage was popularized via African-American Vernacular English.
A middle-aged white woman who exhibits a strong sense of white privilege and entitlement—often rooted in racism against minority races—and frequently targets or antagonizes individuals who face greater societal challenges or must work significantly harder than she.
Any 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.
Where this word comes from
From Danish Karen, a vernacular form of Catherine that arose in medieval Denmark. The sense "middle-aged woman" comes from the popularity of the name among baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The derogatory usage was popularized via African-American Vernacular English.
One of the seven great Parthian feudal families.
A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).
Where this word comes from
From Parthian 𐭊𐭓𐭍𐭉 (krny /Kārēn/), from Old Iranian. The Armenian name is from Armenian Կարեն (Karen), from the same Parthian name.
A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.
Where this word comes from
From Burmese ကရင် (ka.rang), of disputed origin.
A group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by people of the Karen ethnic group, also called Karenic.
Former name of Kayin (“state (administrative division) of Myanmar”).
Where this word comes from
From Burmese ကရင် (ka.rang), of disputed origin.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.