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# keen

«keen» in Mova's school dictionary: **very eager or interested: «She is keen on football.»** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (keen, keener, keenest)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Keen means very eager or interested: «She is keen on football.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#m1)

2) Keen means sharp or strong: «keen eyesight», «a keen wind». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#m2)

3) (UK/Australia informal) Keen to do something means wanting to do it: «Are you keen?» = do you want to come? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday UK, Irish, Australian and NZ speech «keen» means interested or willing. In science, animals with keen senses (eagles' eyes) are described this way. Phrases: «keen on», «keen to», «a keen eye», «not keen».

### examples

- He's keen on dinosaurs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#x1)
- Are you keen to come to the park? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#x2)
- Eagles have keen eyesight. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#x3)
- A keen wind blew across the beach. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#x4)
- I'm not keen on spinach. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#x5)
- She is a keen reader — two books a week! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#x6)
- His keen eyes scanned the wide plain. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/#x7)

### note

«Keen on» + noun or -ing; «keen to» + verb. Not keen = doesn't like much (polite). Old sense «sharp» as in a keen blade.

### In the corpora

- [Being too keen to agree and praise is called being "sycophantic".](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/11/)
- [Letting little ones win sometimes keeps them keen; older children usually want real wins, and can ask to play properly.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/93-cheating-at-games-and-sport/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «keen» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keen/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.