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

In fact, the Ku Klux Klan was a chief supporter of the measure. —Andrew Wimer, Forbes.com, 8 July 2025

Media Matters also found clips online referring to historical traumas, such as the Holocaust and the Ku Klux Klan's attacks on Black Americans. —PC Magazine, 3 July 2025

In some places in the United States, the Ku Klux Klan is a memory, something relegated to textbooks. —Cameron Knight, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

The work is a response to the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald by the Ku Klux Klan in Mobile, Alabama. —Lauren O'Neill Butler july 2, Literary Hub, 2 July 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