Knight or night?
knight is a noun meaning “A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord”; night is a noun meaning “The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark”. They sound the same (/ˈnaɪ̯t/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) night is about 21 times as common as knight.
What is the difference between knight and night?
| knight | night | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, interjection, verb |
| Meaning | A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire To confer knighthood upon | The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark The period of darkness beginning at the end of evening astronomical twilight when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon, and ending at the beginning of… To spend a night (in a place), to overnight |
| Example | King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table | Most animals are awake at day and sleep at night |
| Forms | knights | nights |
| Pronunciation | /ˈnaɪ̯t/ [ˈnaɪ̯t] /ˈnɐɪ̯t/ | /ˈnaɪ̯t/ [ˈnaɪ̯t] /ˈnɑjt/ |
| In writing | 19 times per million words | 407 times per million words |
Sources: knight and night in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of knight and night
knight
- 1
A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord
- 2
To confer knighthood upon
The king knighted the young squire
- 3
A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire
- 4
To promote (a pawn) to a knight
- 5
An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
- 6
A person obliged to provide knight service in exchange for maintenance of an estate held in knight's fee
- 7
A person on whom a knighthood has been conferred by a monarch
- 8
A brave, chivalrous and honorable man devoted to a noble cause or love interest
night
- 1
The time when the Sun is below the horizon when the sky is dark
Most animals are awake at day and sleep at night
- 2
Ellipsis of good night
Night, y'all! Thanks for a great evening!
- 3
To spend a night (in a place), to overnight
- 4
The period of darkness beginning at the end of evening astronomical twilight when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon, and ending at the beginning of morning astronomical twilight
- 5
A period of time often defined in the legal system as beginning 30 minutes after sunset, and ending 30 minutes before sunrise
- 6
An evening or night spent at a particular activity
a night on the town
- 7
A day, or at least a night
I stayed my friend's house for three nights
- 8
Nightfall
from noon till night
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, knight or night?
knight appears 19 times per million words; night 407 times per million words.
knight 19 times per million wordsnight 407 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search knight vs night?
“knight vs night” is searched about 110 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“night vs knight”, “knight or night”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.