knapsack
/ˈnæpsæk/noun, verb
knapsack is spelled K-N-A-P-S-A-C-K. The wrong spelling people search most is napsack: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Knapsack is a noun meaning “A set of values from which a subset is chosen”. The plural of knapsack is knapsacks.
How many letters and syllables are in knapsack?
| Letters | 8: K-N-A-P-S-A-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 58,714th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, napsack, about 140 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell knapsack?
Knapsack is spelled K-N-A-P-S-A-C-K. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for knapsack in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is knapsack?
Knapsack appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce knapsack?
- /ˈnæpsæk/
Knapsack has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-knapsack.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of knapsack
- knapsacks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- knapsacking participle, present
- knapsacked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does knapsack mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USarchaicA case of canvas or leather, for carrying items on the back.
- 2
A set of values from which a subset is chosen.
verb
- 1
To go hiking while burdened with a knapsack, usually overnight or for longer.
My sleeping bag fell off my backpack into the water, while we were knapsacking up the mountain.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Knapsack in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense case of canvas or leather, for carrying items on the back:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does knapsack come from?
From Low German knapzak or Dutch knapzak (older form cnapsack), from Middle Dutch cnappen (“to bite with teeth”), ultimately from knappen (“to eat, crack”), of imitative origin, + sack. German Knappsack is from Dutch.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).