keen
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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“It seems various would-be prospectors are keen to visit the site,” the police statement said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Why would he, without hesitation, become keen on the Lakers?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
"I was always keen to please. And I think it was about just this need to avoid conflict."
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The Scottish champions rejected a multi-million pound offer from Nottingham Forest for the 22-year-old in the winter transfer window and Engels was keen for a move to English football.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
There was a horrid ache in his chest from TimeStar’s sharp confession and his own keen deductions.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
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
“This is the thing my blood keens for—to protect something worth protecting.”
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Personally, I would be much keener to boast about that one.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
And keener senses tend to make for more consequential experiences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
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
When Jude began to hover around, she was flattered—all the girls liked him—and Sula made the enjoyment of his attentions keener simply because she seemed always to want Nel to shine.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
The HMV store on Fargate in Sheffield then opened at midnight to give the band's keenest fans an early opportunity to get their hands on the album.
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2026
Among the candidates for Fed chairman, Kevin Warsh seems keenest to abandon the current regime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
Defeat at the Gabba left only the keenest optimists holding on to the faintest hope.
From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2025
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
“In a siege,” said Dr. Trefusis, “time’s passage is itself an event, and one of the keenest weapons of assault. You appear discountenanced.”
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Amid the nonstop drumbeat of hundreds of feet walking together, bagpipes keened, striking an appropriately dignified tone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2022
“My boy, my little boy, come home to us, my little boy,” she keened over the body.
From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2022
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
But the way they keened their beaks forward and menacingly opened their wings made them look as though they might.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
Languid piano tunes give way to surging, keening tides of strings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 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
The tone of his voice is high, a keening sound.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2024
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 servant, a graying woman, threw herself on the floor keening with apologies.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
Vocabulary lists containing keen
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St. Patrick's Day Vocabulary: Words With Irish and Gaelic Roots
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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