knickerbockers
/ˈnɪkɚbɑkɚz/noun
knickerbockers is spelled K-N-I-C-K-E-R-B-O-C-K-E-R-S: 14 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, knickerbockers means “Men's or boys' baggy knee breeches, of a type particularly popular in the early 20th century” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in knickerbockers?
| Letters | 14: K-N-I-C-K-E-R-B-O-C-K-E-R-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 17 million words; the 122,704th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is knickerbockers?
Knickerbockers appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th 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 knickerbockers?
- UK /ˈnɪkəbɒkəz/
- US /ˈnɪkɚbɑkɚz/
Knickerbockers has 4 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)-Vealhurl-knickerbockers.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of knickerbockers
- knickerbocker
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does knickerbockers mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Men's or boys' baggy knee breeches, of a type particularly popular in the early 20th century.
noun
- 1
archaicplural of Knickerbocker; New Yorkers, particularly descendants of its original Dutch settlers
- 2
The formal name of the New York Knicks, a team in the National Basketball Association
- 3
A short-lived 19th-century baseball team in New York
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Knickerbockers in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense knickerbockers:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | knickerbockers, knickers |
| German | Knickerbocker |
| Spanish | bombacho, bombachos |
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 knickerbockers come from?
From Knickerbocker + -s, after the short breeches worn by Diedrich Knickerbocker in George Cruikshank's illustrations of Washington Irving's 1809 A History of New York.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).