Three-Letter Words: Ken
Some of the most perplexing words on the GRE are diminutive. Who doesn’t see PAN : REVIEW and metaphorically scratch his or her head, or wonder what, exactly, a nib or a gin is on its own? Welcome to Three-Letter Words. A few of them might make you want to deploy some four-letter words.
Ken isn’t just Barbie’s boyfriend. Ken means knowledge, understanding, or perception. It often occurs in the expression “beyond my ken.”
Don’t confuse ken with kin, meaning family or relatives.
Choose your own answer before clicking “more”:
As a scholar of Chinese dynasties and governments, three thousand years of history was well within his ken; even those who criticized his conclusions had to admit that his ___________ was _____________.
A. legerdemain … arcane
B. erudition … estimable
C. pedantry … prodigious
D. perspicacity … wan
E. sagacity … tantamount
We need words that mean “learning” and “impressive,” respectively. B is the only match. “Estimable” can mean “capable of being estimated, but more commonly means “worthy of esteem.”