JK

PluralJKs

1. 1
   phraseinitialism

   Initialism of just kidding.

   You actually won the whole prize fund. JK, it was only a small gift card.

   She said she hated the gift, then quickly wrote JK with a laughing emoji.

   Note

   Text-message shorthand that takes back what was just said. Usually it is tacked onto the end of a teasing remark, though it can break in mid-sentence to undo a claim before the truth follows. It is written as jk or JK with no difference in meaning. It carries the informal tone of the spoken "just kidding" and belongs in chat, not in formal writing.

2. 2
   proper nouninitialism

   Initialism of Jammu and Kashmir: a union territory of India.

   The new highway is meant to connect remote districts across JK.

   Apple orchards in JK produce a large share of the country's harvest.

   Note

   The short form is narrower than the name it shortens. Jammu and Kashmir can mean the old princely state whose territory is now divided between China, India and Pakistan, or the autonomous territory Pakistan administers from Muzaffarabad. JK points to the Indian union territory, whose capitals are Srinagar and Jammu. Writers who need the princely state or the Pakistani territory should spell the name out.

3. 3
   proper nounabbreviation

   Abbreviation of the Special Capital Region of Jakarta: a province of Indonesia.

   Note

   The article falls away in the short form. The full name is the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, but one writes in JK, never in the JK. Context does the rest of the work, because the same two letters also stand for the Indian union territory and for "just kidding". In an address, a census table or an administrative report, JK means the province.

4. 4
   nounCanadainitialism

   Initialism of junior kindergarten.

   Parents lined up early to register their four-year-olds for JK.

   The JK classroom was filled with picture books and building blocks.

   Note

   A Canadian school term that works like the name of a grade. Children are registered for JK or are in JK, with no article, and it also stands before a noun, as in a JK teacher or the JK classroom. Outside Canada the letters are likely to be read as something else, so writing for a wider audience calls for the full phrase junior kindergarten.

5. 5
   nounslangcountable

   A girl who attends high school; a teenage schoolgirl.

   She's still a JK, so she has cram school almost every evening.

   A group of JKs in matching uniforms gathered outside the café.

   Similarschoolgirl

   Note

   A borrowing rather than an English initialism. The Japanese JK abbreviates joshi kōsei, "high-school girl", and English-speaking fans took over the letters along with the meaning. It is fandom slang, mostly confined to talk about Japanese settings, anime and pop culture. In English it takes an ordinary plural, JKs, and it would puzzle readers outside those circles.

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