Kraken

//ˈkɹæ.kən// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of Kraken. alt-of, alternative
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A colossal sea monster that attacks ships and sailors, often portrayed as a giant octopus or squid. Norse

Example

More examples

"The mythical Kraken, thick as a ship and three times as wide, once made an attack on Christopher Columbus's fleet... giving Columbus no choice but to eat him."

Etymology

Borrowed from Norwegian kraken (Bokmål entry; Nynorsk entry), definite singular of krake (“crooked dead tree, wooden drag/grapnel”) (Bokmål entry; Nynorsk entry), both from Old Norse kraki (“crooked dead tree, wooden drag/grapnel”, literally “crookie: something with crooks/hooks”), from Proto-Germanic *krankaz (“crooked”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.