Meaning & use
beyond my ken
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Meaning
phraseidiomold-fashioned
Too difficult, strange or unfamiliar for a person to understand or know about.
Grammar: The possessive changes with the person: beyond my ken, beyond his ken.
Patterns
- something is beyond someone's ken
How the tax rules work is completely beyond my ken.
Modern jazz was beyond his ken, having only heard folk music as a boy.
Why anyone would pay that much for a handbag is beyond my ken.
Common combinations
- completely beyond my ken
- Cricket scoring is completely beyond my ken.
- far beyond her ken
- Computer programming was far beyond her ken in the early 1980s.
- beyond the ken of ordinary people
- The workings of the court seemed beyond the ken of ordinary people.
- quite beyond their ken
- Such luxury was quite beyond their ken.
Synonyms and how they differ
- beyond me
- This is the everyday, more casual way to say the same thing, while beyond my ken sounds more formal or playful.
- incomprehensible
- It is a plain adjective that describes the thing itself, rather than a person's limited knowledge of it.
- unfamiliar
- It means something is not known, but it does not suggest that it is too hard to grasp.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: beyond my ken or Ken?
beyond my ken vs Ken
A man's first name, unrelated to the old noun 'ken' meaning the range of one's knowledge.
Practice
'Why people enjoy standing in the rain for hours at a festival is beyond my ken.' What does the speaker mean?
Choose one answer.
Beyond my ken means outside what I can understand. It says nothing about attending, planning or jealousy.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “beyond my ken”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.