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Definitions

keen

[keen] / kin /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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On the other hand, Mr. Bush was a keen judge of character and recognized the need for a counterweight to Powell.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

It also explains why Mourinho has been keen to stress Madrid's attacking players must work together rather than operate as individuals.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

She’s been keen to share a bill with Sleater-Kinney ever since she heard their 1996 album “Call the Doctor.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Maresca is keen to work with him again after losing a host of midfielders this summer, while Fernandez is open to the move.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

Robin’s keen eye and strong arms helped him to send the “duck,” a small pointed stone, so far he could easily get to the goal and back before the other boys could retrieve the duck.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

Dr Caulfield said she was "delighted” to see Róis “proudly performing her keens to full houses, with no shame or stigmatisation involved, just audiences loving her bravery and skill".

From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2025

Benjamin Wallfisch’s score keens and groans ominously, sometimes dipping into synthy electronic moments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2024

She’s got a beaten-up suitcase at her feet and keens softly into her lap.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 14, 2019

He has too much of his father in him, the forlorn trumpet of John Williams’ score keens.

From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2019

The priests walk slowly around the pyre, saying antique prayers, and the crowd, all in black, ignoring the black priests, keens.

From "Grendel" by John Gardner

Dior designer Jonathan Anderson appeared keener than most to take some risks.

From Barron's ● Jan. 25, 2026

The magic is unique and often biological—many characters have mental or physical enhancements that give them perfect memory or keener senses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

It's not hard to imagine which one the family of the time was keener to remember.

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2025

What they were keener to talk about was life in Henderson, a city they’d lived in and loved for a long time now—including for the MMA connection.

From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2024

He spoke slowly and a little wearily, but they were too much interested to guess that he was holding back some news of keener interest.

From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt

The 52-year-old German is known as one of the game's keenest minds, a coach obsessed with detail and blessed with a special gift for analysis.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

The event was hosted by Wendy Cutler, a veteran American trade negotiator and one of Washington’s keenest observers of Asian trade policy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

For our money, Jim is both the funniest and keenest politics writer in the United States—which is to say, readers, your long national nightmare is over!

From Slate ● Aug. 30, 2025

The most exciting auteurs are the keenest readers of plays.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2024

I have the keenest sense of deja vu.

From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins

But whether the wind produced a lion’s roar, or merely keened or whistled or hummed, at its peak it was clocked by the National Weather Service at Reagan National Airport at 29 mph.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 29, 2020

Well, the souls howled and keened, as distressed souls are known to do, since they understood that a garden that nobody visited was not worth cultivating.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019

While the violin lines of “Where Are U Now” keened behind him, his face was slick with sweat.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2015

The metal structure keened its mournful note again.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2013

She sniffed, and nodded, and cried and wailed and keened for her husband, who would never come back to her.

From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

The keening chorus is anchored by Roger Troutman, who enjoyed a series of 1980s hits with sprays of talk-box-warped vocals, while the blasting beat was produced by Dr. Dre, the chief architect of G-funk.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Gilgamesh’s lament is not the stylized keening of epic tradition—not Achilles’ highfalutin howls after Hector strikes down Patroclus—but something rawer, humbler, more recognizably human.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

As such, there's little to compare with the straightforward joy of Watermelon Sugar, or the keening desire of As It Was - but Styles isn't stupid enough to alienate his fanbase entirely.

From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026

But later, in a videotaped hospital reunion with her parents in which she was blocked from view, the young woman’s audible sobs turned to wild, wordless keening.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2023

The sound came again, thin and keening, from the black hulk of the body on the far right.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo




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