knife
/naɪf/
"knife" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“knife” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,567 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,567
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge, attached to a handle. The blade may b...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | knife |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /naɪf/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,567 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “knife” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for knife is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /naɪf/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,567 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for knife, with forms such as "kinfe", "kknife", and "knfie". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "knit", "knits", "knives", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English knyf, knif, from late Old English cnīf, from Old Norse knífr, from Proto-Germanic *knībaz, from *knīpaną (“to pinch”), Proto-Indo-European *gneybʰ- (compare Lithuanian gnýbti, žnýbti (“to pinch”), gnaibis (“pinching”)). Displaced native … The correct English form is knife, spelled K-N-I-F-E.
Definition
- 1A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge, attached to a handle. The blade may be pointed for piercing.
- 2A weapon designed with the aforementioned specifications intended for slashing or stabbing but too short to be called a sword; a dagger.
- 3Any blade-like part in a tool or a machine designed for cutting, such as that of a chipper.
Etymology
From Middle English knyf, knif, from late Old English cnīf, from Old Norse knífr, from Proto-Germanic *knībaz, from *knīpaną (“to pinch”), Proto-Indo-European *gneybʰ- (compare Lithuanian gnýbti, žnýbti (“to pinch”), gnaibis (“pinching”)). Displaced native Middle English sax (“knife”) from Old English seax; and Middle English coutel, qwetyll (“knife”) from Old French coutel. The verb knife is attested since the 1860s; the variant knive is attested since 1733. Cognates Cognate with Yola kunnife (“knife”), North Frisian knif (“knife”), Dutch knijf (“long pointy knife, poniard”), German Knifte (“rifle; thick slicebread”), German Low German Knief (“knife”), Luxembourgish Knäip (“paring knife”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kniv (“knife”), Faroese knívur (“knife”), Icelandic hnífur, knífur (“knife”), Swedish knif, kniv (“knife”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: kinfe,kknife,knfie,knief,kniffe,knnife,nkife
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of knife - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “knife”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-N-I-F-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /naɪf/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “knit” - see the side-by-side comparison. knife vs knit
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.