kern

Meanings

Plural: kerns

Noun

United States composer of musical comedies (1885-1945)
the part of a metal typeface that projects beyond its body
A corn; grain; kernel.
The last handful or sheaf reaped at the harvest.
The harvest home.
A doll or figurine raised in celebration of a successful harvest; kern-baby.
Any part of a letter which extends into the space used by another letter.
A light-armed foot soldier of the ancient militia of Ireland and Scotland; in archaic contexts often used as a term of contempt.
A boor; a low person.
An idler; a vagabond.
Alternative form of quern.
A churn.

Verb

furnish with a kern
remove a portion of space between (adjacent letters)
To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters (characters or glyphs); to perform such adjustments to a portion of text, according to preset rules.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English curn, cooren, variant forms of Middle English corn, see English corn and also Dutch kern, Old High German kerno, cherno, Middle High German kerne, kern, German Kern (“core, kernel”), Old Norse kjarni, Icelandic kjarni, Danish kjerne, Swedish kärna (“core, kernel”); see also kernel.

Synonyms

Jerome David Kern, Jerome Kern

Antonyms

kern

Scrabble Score: 8

kern is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
kern is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
kern is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 9

kern is a valid Words With Friends word