How to Use keen in a Sentence

keen

1 of 2 adjective

• She's a very keen observer of the political world.
• This was a time when a lot of men weren’t so keen on that.
  — Frederick N. Rasmussen, baltimoresun.com, 7 Apr. 2021
• For those not so keen on LEDs, the light show can be turned off.
  — Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 5 Jan. 2022
• The owners are keen to make this a place for art, late nights, and fun.
  — Joanne Shurvell, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2022
• Elton’s very keen that the stress not be on camper van.
  — Shana Naomi Krochmal, EW.com, 3 Nov. 2019
• Speaks to the metaverse, which Mark and Sheryl are keen on.
  — John Kenney, The New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2021
• Payne is keen to open up the AI field, which many say is rife with bias.
  — Jenny Anderson, Quartz, 4 Sep. 2019
• One step inside the house reveals the Lewis’ keen eye for style.
  — Sarah Cook, al, 2 Nov. 2019
• Team Penske hasn’t been keen lately to add a one-off car.
  — Nathan Brown, The Indianapolis Star, 15 Feb. 2023
• Michael is a fun boy who has a unique, yet keen sense of humor.
  — Boys & Girls Aid / Community Content Partner, OregonLive.com, 8 June 2018
• Anyway, Priscilla was a golfer — a keen one and a good one.
  — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 30 Nov. 2020
• Gift that keen sense of cool with this lovely pair from Walden.
  — Mark Stock, Men's Health, 16 Nov. 2022
• Buildings around the world are keen to get that seal of approval.
  — Adrienne Bernhard, Smithsonian, 27 Apr. 2018
• Firms are keen to be seen to be paying their fair share.
  — The Economist, 23 Nov. 2019
• Sotheby’s is, of course, very keen on next year’s sales, and this year’s, too.
  — Washington Post, 1 June 2021
• The bright moments in these works are keen and fleeting.
  — Annika Neklason, The Atlantic, 26 June 2018
• Still, Green, a keen and steely talent, puts them — and us — through hell.
  — Amy Nicholson, Variety, 16 Sep. 2023
• But not every on-premise is keen on adding non-alcs to menus.
  — Kate Dingwall, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2021
• Both share a deep passion for food and a keen eye for design.
  — New York Times, 28 Apr. 2022
• The new ways of the SEC favor an old coach keen on redemption.
  — Joseph Goodman | [e-mail], al, 18 July 2023
• So, parents weren't too keen on being charged for the face masks.
  — Paul Best, Fox News, 25 Nov. 2020
• Strong points: Sworn so far seems keen to take its time with cases.
  — Anne T. Donahue, Cosmopolitan, 10 July 2017
• Ayden Beck showed a keen eye at the plate getting on base with four walks.
  — Emmett Hall, sun-sentinel.com, 6 June 2019
• Still, some jurors have not seemed keen to stay for too long.
  — New York Times, 2 Dec. 2020
• A lot of new inventors are keen to know whether the provider charges for services, and what the fees are.
  — Jon Stojan, Journal Sentinel, 11 Aug. 2023
• The book is funny and more than a few of the observations are keen.
  — Michael Kleber-Diggs Special To The Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 29 Jan. 2021
• His creative spirt and keen sense of humor will be missed.
  — Sun-Sentinel.com, 7 Feb. 2018
• Buttigieg served in one of those wars and has been keen on reminding us about it.
  — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 30 Oct. 2019
• In addition to this silent code, okapi also rely on a keen sense of smell and hearing to detect potential threats.
  — Katie Liu, Discover Magazine, 11 Apr. 2024
• None of these issues takes a keen retail or product-development mind to detect.
  — Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 12 Apr. 2024

keen

2 of 2 verb

• Dozens swooned, cried, keened and passed out from the heat outside the mansion gates.
  — Olivia B. Waxman, Time, 16 Aug. 2017
• The single added word turned her shock into keening self-pity.
  — Leslie Jamison, New York Times, 17 Jan. 2018
• They would all be overcome by such melancholy that someone would begin to cry and keen.
  — Olga Tokarczuk, The New Yorker, 13 Sep. 2021
• Something like a falcon keens in the wilderness beyond town.
  — Jacob Brogan, Slate Magazine, 17 July 2017
• That’s also the idea with Ogilala, in which Corgan’s keening take-it-or-leave-it voice is often paired with piano and a string section.
  — Dan Deluca, Philly.com, 12 Oct. 2017
• The Dogman had a clear memory of the event because Sudimack had called him from a gas station outside Allentown to keen over the loss of his future.
  — Michael Deagler, Harper's Magazine, 27 Oct. 2020
• His first albums, built on country blues foundations, shook with dexterous picking and a voice that keened and yipped and roared.
  — Brendan Fitzgerald, Longreads, 14 Mar. 2020
• The sparse soundtrack is made up of silence and female voices keening, singing and shrieking, a deeply unpleasant sonic quilt.
  — Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2019
• Unlike beams of tinnitus, these keening, distortionlike sounds were a sign of healthy ears.
  — Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, 19 May 2017
• Speakers beneath the floor rumble with thunderous sounds of glaciers calving, like a keening mammoth.
  — Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 9 May 2018
• The courtyard bustled with activity, the women keen to get out of their tiny dormitories.
  — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 14 June 2018
• Dani discovers Christian in flagrante and finally lets out her howling grief, surrounded by a half-dozen girls who match her keening with their own.
  — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox, 3 July 2019
• Serene waves of sound underpin Mr. Mahadevan’s gentle, keening vocals, and then the duo is joined by Mr. Hussain, whose tablas gently complement the vocals and guitar.
  — Martin Johnson, WSJ, 24 Jan. 2020
• Taken together, these two long poems, as well as two odes to nature that follow them, represent a powerful act of keening for a falling world.
  — Craig Morgan Teicher, latimes.com, 9 Mar. 2018
• The past few years have brought folksy screeching, glacial silences, drawling speech, powdery bleakness and spiritual solemnity; last year, a keening Ethiopian folk song was tricked out with an avant-garde mixture of yelps, croaks and hums.
  — Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 1 Sep. 2017
• Kid zombies maraud the local gas station for candy while adults wander outside the pharmacy listlessly keening for Xanax.
  — Katie Walsh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 June 2019
• That certainly applied in Von Freeman’s case, his keening tone and sometimes ever-so-slightly-flat pitch distinguishing him from anyone who ever brought reed to lips.
  — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 22 Sep. 2019
• The fiddle keens and runs of band member Daniel Foulks — sometimes country-raw, sometimes virtuosic, sometimes psychedelic — make a mighty contribution as well.
  — Stuart Munro, BostonGlobe.com, 18 May 2018
• Koenig’s light, boyish vocals are deceptive — like Paul Simon’s keening entreaties that soft-pedaled erudition to both flatter and challenge listeners.
  — Armond White, National Review, 10 Dec. 2019
• One hears keening string parts, startling brass outbursts, otherworldly writing for piano, cimbalom, cellos and double basses.
  — Georgia Rowe, The Mercury News, 17 Feb. 2017
• Featuring solos by trumpeter Mike Rodriguez and alto saxophonist Dave Pietro, the tune built to a dense cacophony, with plucked piano strings and keening accordion evoking the mechanized, nonstop flow of electrons.
  — Dan Emerson, Twin Cities, 17 Feb. 2017