Ku Klux Klan

noun

ˈkü-ˈkləks-ˈklan 

 also  ˈkyü-,

 or  ˈklü-

1

: a violent secret fraternal society founded in 1915 in Georgia to maintain white Protestant cultural and political power

also : any one of more than 20 hate (see hate entry 1 sense 1c) groups that associate themselves with the Ku Klux Klan

2

: a violent post-Civil War secret society founded in Tennessee in 1866 to upend the Black political and social power that was being established during Reconstruction

Note: This Ku Klux Klan had largely dissolved by the end of the 1870s.

Examples of Ku Klux Klan in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The resistors were bankers and business leaders, Kiwanis and Rotary Club members and clergy, and middle-class members of White Citizens’ Councils who took pains to distance themselves from the Ku Klux Klan—as well as officeholders from local school boards to state capitols to the halls of Congress. —Essence, 22 Mar. 2025

Once upon a time, such laws were on the books to stop the Ku Klux Klan from terrorizing Blacks, Catholics and Jews behind their white hoods. —New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 21 Mar. 2025

In what many critics called a return to form for Spike, his 2018 crime drama BlacKkKlansman saw John David Washington as a detective trying to infiltrate and expose a local Ku Klux Klan chapter. —Brendan Le, People.com, 20 Mar. 2025

Civil-liberties organizations have defended neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan on the basis that, unless there is free speech for the most contemptible members of society, there cannot be free speech for all. —Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1867, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for Ku Klux Klan

• businessman
• canavan
• caravan
• constantan
• dragoman
• fisherman
• handyman
• harmattan
• journeyman
• marianne
• middleman
• minivan