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

Notre Dame was the site of a three-day Ku Klux Klan rally in the spring of 1924, leading to a standoff between students and Klansmen. —Ralph D. Russo, The Athletic, 8 Jan. 2025

The Ku Klux Klan Trials have much in common with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and the ensuing wave of prosecutions and trials. —Brittany Friedman / Made By History, TIME, 6 Jan. 2025

The case is being taken under a post-Civil War act that was designed to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from threatening African Americans. —Kevin Lynn, Newsweek, 6 Jan. 2025

Some Black critics, including W. E. B. Du Bois, denounced his Black separatist views and his relationship with the Ku Klux Klan, who shared Garvey's goal of racial separatism. —Delano Massey, Axios, 4 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1867, in the meaning defined at sense 2