knien
German, verb
knien is spelled K-N-I-E-N (5 letters) and appears 4.4 times per million words in written German, the 13,580th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Knien is a German verb meaning “to kneel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Knien is a different word: “dative plural of Knie”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “so sitzen, dass das Körpergewicht auf den Knien ruht”.
What does knien mean in English?
verb
- 1
to kneel
noun
- 1
dative plural of Knie
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. so sitzen, dass das Körpergewicht auf den Knien ruht 2. sich so setzen, dass das Körpergewicht auf den Knien ruht
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of knien
- kniet present singular third-person
- kniete past
- gekniet participle past
- haben auxiliary
- kniend participle present
- knie first-person indicative present
- kniest indicative present second-person
- knieten first-person indicative plural
- knietest indicative preterite second-person
- knietet indicative plural preterite
- habe gekniet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gekniet first-person indicative multiword-construction
- knie! imperative singular
- kniet! imperative plural
- gekniet haben auxiliary active infinitive
- zu knien auxiliary active extended
- gekniet zu haben auxiliary active extended
- habe gekniet! auxiliary imperative uncommon
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to knien
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is knien in German?
knien appears 4.4 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).