The voiceless velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages.

Most Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi and Bengali, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [k].

Only a few languages lack a voiceless velar plosive, e.g. Tahitian and Mongolian.

Some languages have the voiceless pre-velar plosive,[1] which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as front as the prototypical palatal plosive.

Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.