kilohertz

noun

ki·​lo·​hertz ˈki-lə-ˌhərts 

ˈkē-lə-, 

-ˌherts 

plural kilohertz

: 1000 hertz

Did you know?

If your favorite AM radio station has a frequency of 680 kilohertz (kHz), that means the station's transmitter is oscillating (vibrating) at a rate of 680,000 cycles per second (i.e., 680,000 times a second). A related term is megahertz (MHz), meaning "millions of cycles per second". Shortwave radio operates between 5.9 and 26.1 MHz, and the FM radio band operates between 88 and 108 MHz. Garage-door openers work at about 40 MHz, baby monitors work at 49 MHz, and so on. The terms hertz, kilohertz and megahertz honor the great German physicist Heinrich Hertz, the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves.

Examples of kilohertz in a Sentence

a frequency of 80 kilohertz

Recent Examples on the Web

System 2 handles high-level reasoning and language, System 1 translates perception into full-body motion at high frequency, and System 0 executes human-like balance and coordination at kilohertz rates. —Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 28 Jan. 2026

There were two types of stations: AM radio with broadcast frequencies from 535 to 1,700 kilohertz (kHZ) and FM radio from 88 to 108 megahertz (MHz). —Rhett Allain, Wired News, 16 Jan. 2026

For me, that worked out to about 2 kilohertz. —David Schneider, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Nov. 2025

Recent experiments have already narrowed that to 300 kilohertz, and upcoming work could shrink it further to hundreds of hertz. —New Atlas, 16 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

International Scientific Vocabulary

First Known Use

1929, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

kilohertz

noun

ki·​lo·​hertz ˈkil-ə-ˌhərts 

ˈkē-lə-, 

-ˌhe(ə)rts

: 1000 hertz

Medical Definition

kilohertz

noun

ki·​lo·​hertz ˈkil-ə-ˌhərts  ˈkē-lə- 

-ˌhe(ə)rts

: 1000 hertz