Kuninkaan

Kuninkaan is the genitive singular form of the Finnish noun kuningas, meaning the king. It is used to express possession or a close relationship with the king, and appears in phrases such as kuninkaan palatsi (the king’s palace) and kuninkaan valta (the king’s power). In Finnish, the genitive singular marks ownership and is commonly found in both everyday language and formal writing.

The genitive plural of kuningas is kuninkaiden, meaning the kings’ or of the kings. Kuninkaan, like other genitive forms, is an inflected form rather than a separate word, and it often appears with a following noun in a possessive construct. Compounds and noun phrases can be written with kuninkaan either as two words (kuninkaan palatsi) or in closed form in some contexts (kuninkaanpalatsi), depending on style and tradition.

Etymology traces kuningas to a Germanic source, with cognates in other languages such as Swedish kung and English king. The Finnish form reflects typical Finnic phonology and inflection, adapting the Germanic root to Finnish morphology. Although kuninkaan is a specific grammatical form, its meaning is clear in context: it denotes something belonging to or associated with the king, serving as a key element in descriptions of monarchy, governance, and ceremonial life in Finnish texts.