K
Kaaba
Islam’s most sacred shrine at the centre of the great mosque in Mecca. It is a mass of stone 38 feet high, 40 long and 30 wide (11 x 12 x 9 metres).
Kampuchea, use Cambodia
karat
A measurement of weight in precious stones and of purity in gold in American style: carat in UK.
Kathmandu, not Katmandu, Nepal
keenness
Kermanshah
Use Bakhtaran for both the city of Kermanshah and the province of Kermanshah, Iran.
kerosene
Not kerosine. Medium-light distillate used for lighting and heating and to provide fuel for jet and turbo-prop aircraft engines. Called paraffin or paraffin oil in Britain.
ketchup, not catchup or catsup.
key
Overused as an adjective and usually superfluous.
keynote
One word as in keynote speech or keynote address, but it is a tired cliché and best expressed in another way. Explain why the speech is keynote.
KGB
Initials of the former Soviet Committee for State Security (Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti), split up and renamed in 1991. Since then Russian internal and foreign security agencies have been reorganised several times but can still be referred to as successors to the KGB. This does not include the Interior Ministry in charge of the police, which was separate from the KGB in the post-Stalin Soviet Union.
Khmer Rouge
Cambodian Communists.
kibbutz
Plural kibbutzim. An Israeli collective settlement.
kick-off, kick off
Hyphenated for the noun and two words for the verb.
kidnap, kidnapping, kidnapped, kidnapper
kids
Use children
kilogram
Use kg (no full stop, same singular and plural) at all references. Convert kilograms to pounds for small weights (below 1,000 kg), to tons for larger weights. To convert to pounds roughly multiply by 22 and divide by 10, precisely multiply by 2.205. To convert to tons roughly divide by 1,000, precisely multiply by 0.000984.
kilometre
Use km (no full stop, same singular and plural) at all references, except in a phrase such as hundreds of kilometres. To convert to miles roughly multiply by 5 and divide by 8, precisely multiply by 0.621.
km per hour
First reference, kph on second and subsequent references.
kiloton
A measure of explosive force, equal to that of 1,000 tons of TNT. The atomic bomb dropped at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was a 12.5 kiloton weapon.
kindergarten
king
At second reference either the king or the full name, e.g. King Baudouin. Also capitalise the titles of deposed monarchs, e.g. ex-King Zahir Shah.
Kiribati
Formerly Gilbert Islands, West Pacific.
Kmart
No hyphen and no space.
Knesset
Lower house of Israeli Parliament.
knowledgeable
know-how
knot
A measurement of speed, not distance. It describes how many nautical miles (1.15 statute miles) a vessel or aircraft has travelled in one hour. Do not convert to miles per hour. Do not write knots per hour.
Kolkata
Not Calcutta, India.
Koran
Capitalised, the Koran.
Korean names
Koreans put their surname first. The given name follows, hyphenated, and with the initial letter of the first part in upper case and the initial letter of the second part in lower case. Examples: Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, Ahn Jung-hwan. Use the surname only at second reference, e.g. Kim, Roh, Ahn. There are some rare cases where there is just one monosyllabic given name, for example Park Seung, where Seung is the given name.
kosher
Lower case.
kowtow
No hyphen.
kph
Use km per hour on first reference, kph on subsequent references.
Ku Klux Klan
A loose-knit organisation of about 40 U.S. groups which claim the supremacy of the white or Aryan race.
kudos
Fame, credit or renown. Always singular.
Category: The Reuters General Style Guide