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PlainSpell

knight

/ˈnaɪ̯t/noun, verb

knight is spelled K-N-I-G-H-T: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,444th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “knight vs night” about 110 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, knight means “A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of knight is knights.

How many letters and syllables are in knight?

Letters6: K-N-I-G-H-T
Syllables1
In writing19 times per million words; the 4,444th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is knight?

Knight appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,444th 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 knight?

  • US /ˈnaɪ̯t/
  • US [ˈnaɪ̯t]
  • /ˈnɐɪ̯t/

Knight has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-knight.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with knight

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

knight vs night110 G

Sounds like: night, nite (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with knight?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as knight from its last stressed vowel (/aɪt/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of knight

  • knights plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • knighting participle, present
  • knighted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does knight mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord.

  2. 2

    A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire.

  3. 3

    An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.

    King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

  4. 4

    A person obliged to provide knight service in exchange for maintenance of an estate held in knight's fee.

  5. 5

    A person on whom a knighthood has been conferred by a monarch.

  6. 6

    A brave, chivalrous and honorable man devoted to a noble cause or love interest.

  7. 7

    A chess piece, often in the shape of a horse's head, that is moved two squares in one direction and one at right angles to that direction in a single move, leaping over any intervening pieces.

  8. 8

    datedA playing card bearing the figure of a knight; the knave or jack.

verb

  1. 1

    To confer knighthood upon.

    The king knighted the young squire.

  2. 2

    To promote (a pawn) to a knight.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate knight?

Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of knight: Kt, N, kt..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Knight in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchchevalier (warrior, especially of the Middle Ages), cavalier (chess piece), faire chevalier (to confer a knighthood upon)
GermanRitter (warrior, especially of the Middle Ages), Springer, Pferd, Ross, Rössel (chess piece), zum Ritter schlagen (to confer a knighthood upon)
Portuguesecavaleiro (warrior, especially of the Middle Ages), cavalo (chess piece), dar o título de cavaleiro (to confer a knighthood upon)
Spanishcaballero, caballera, équite (warrior, especially of the Middle Ages), acaballar (to confer a knighthood upon)

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 knight come from?

From Middle English knight, knyght, kniht, from Old English cniht (“boy; servant, knight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after knight