K, the eleventh letter, and eighth consonant, of our alphabet, is formed by a guttural expression of the breath. 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 e at the end of words, but is now omitted. Thus, for publick, music, we now write public, music, and so on. However, in monosyllables it is still retained, as jack, block, &c.