K, the tenth letter, and seventh consonant, of our alphabet, being formed by a guttural expression of the breath through the mouth, together with a depression of the lower jaw, and an opening of the teeth. Its sound is much the same with that of the hard c, or qu, and it is used for the most part only before e, i, and n, in the beginning of words, as ken, kill, know, and the like. It used formerly to be always joined with c at the end of words, but is at present very properly omitted, at least in words derived from the Latin. Thus, for publick, musick, we now say public, music, and so on. However, in monosyllables it is still retained, as jack, block, mock, and the like.