The kilometre (American spelling: kilometer; SI symbol: km) is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for 1000). It is now the measurement unit used officially for expressing distances between geographical places on land in most of the world; notable exceptions are the United States and the United Kingdom where the statute mile is the official unit used.

k (pronounced kay) is occasionally used in some English-speaking countries as an alternative for the word kilometre in everyday writing and speech. A slang term for the kilometre in the U.S. military is klick.

There are two common pronunciations for the word:

The former pronunciation follows the general pattern in English whereby SI units of measurement are pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and the pronunciation of the actual base unit does not change irresepective of the prefix. It is generally preferred by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Karingozhakkal Mani Mani (K. M. Mani) is a veteran Indian politician and the leader of Kerala Congress (M), one of the factions of the Kerala Congress. He holds the records of having presented the maximum number of ten budgets in the Kerala Legislative Assembly as Finance Minister and also as the longest-serving member of Kerala Assembly. He holds the distinction of being the longest-serving minister in the Government of Kerala and having continuously represented from Palai legislative constituency since its inception. He is the MLA of Palai Legislative constituency for the last 45 years beginning from 1965. He is known for his political tactics as comparable to veteran politician K. Karunakaran. He lost the Chief Minister post of Kerala in 1979 twixt cup and lip.^{[citation needed]} Mani is regarded as the 'God Father' of all factions of Kerala Congress parties in the state.^{[citation needed]}

He was born to Thomas Mani and Aleyamma Mani in 1933 in a Syrian Catholic Christian family at Marangattupilly village in Kottayam district of Kerala and is married to Kuttiyamma. They have a son, five daughters, and thirteen grandkids. His son Jose K Mani, contested unsuccessfully from the Muvattupuzha parliament constituency in 2004. Later in 2009 Jose K Mani was elected as the MP of Kottayam parliament constituency by defeating sitting MP Suresh Kurup of LDF. He is married to Nisha Jose. Mani practiced as a lawyer before entering politics as an active member of the Indian National Congress. He studied in Kuravilangad at St. Mary's High School and in Palai at St. Thomas High School. He was interested in elocution from a young age and participated in elocution competitions. He started his political career by being the Congress president of Marangattupilly ward. He married Kuttiyamma when he was a Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee member.

Justyna Kowalczyk (pronounced [jusˈtɨna kɔˈvalt​͡ʂɨk] ( listen), born January 19, 1983) is a Polish cross country skier who has been competing since 2000. She is one of the most successful cross country skiers of all time, being the only skier in the history with victories in all the most important sport events, so called "The Big Crown": Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup and Tour de Ski.

Kowalczyk is an Olympic Champion and a double World Champion. She is also the only skier who won the Tour de Ski three times in a row and one of two female skiers, who won the FIS Cross-Country World Cup three times in a row (the other one being Finn Marjo Matikainen). Kowalczyk holds the all-time record for the most wins in Tour de Ski with 10 competitions won.

Kowalczyk finished second in the individual sprint at the 2003 World Junior Championships. She finished 31st in the individual sprint event at the 2003 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Recently in Canmore, Canada, on Jan 22, 2008, Justyna Kowalczyk won the race for her second World Cup triumph. She followed in Canmore with two more bronze medals in the same World Cup event. Kowalczyk was 3rd in the 2007 World Cup.