High-level, restricted coupled cluster with singles, doubles, and perturbative triples calculations are performed to determine the ground electronic state of KO. In the absence of spin-orbit coupling, we find that the ground state is a 2 ⌺ ϩ state, with a 2 ⌸ state lying just over 200 cm Ϫ1 higher in energy. We ascertain that basis set extension, higher-order correlation energy, mass-velocity, and Darwin relativistic terms do not change this ordering. We then calculate the low-lying ⍀ states when spin-orbit coupling is turned on. The 2 ⌺ 1/2 ϩ state undergoes an avoided crossing with the 2 ⌸ 1/2 state, and we therefore designate the ground state as X 1 2 . This state is essentially 2 ⌺ 1/2 ϩ at short R, but essentially 2 ⌸ 1/2 at long R; there is a corresponding A 1 2 state with the opposite behavior. These states have significantly different shapes and so spectroscopy from the adiabatic states. Finally, we calculate the dissociation energy D 0 , of KO as 66Ϯ1 kcal mol Ϫ1 and derive ⌬H f (KO, 0 K) as 13.6Ϯ1 kcal mol Ϫ1 .