MEANING
1. Make a sustained, high mourning cry.
2. Showing strong enthusiasm or desire.
3. Able to notice or understand small or important details.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- keen for the dead
- women keen
On the page
A lone voice keened for the dead beside the river.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- keen
- Past tense
- keened
- Past participle
- keened
- Present participle
- keening
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- keen
- Present continuous
- am/is/are keening
- Present perfect
- have/has keened
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been keening
- Past
- keened
- Past continuous
- was/were keening
- Past perfect
- had keened
- Past perfect continuous
- had been keening
- Future
- will keen
- Future continuous
- will be keening
- Future perfect
- will have keened
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been keening
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: sensory / description. Forms: keen; keens; keened; keened; keening Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: keens.
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