knight

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word knight. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word knight, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say knight in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word knight you have here. The definition of the word knight will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofknight, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Knight

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A knight (warrior).
A knight (chess).

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

Noun

knight (plural knights)

  1. (historical) A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord.
  2. (historical) A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire.
  3. (by extension) An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
    King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
  4. (law, historical) A person obliged to provide knight service in exchange for maintenance of an estate held in knight's fee.
  5. (modern) A person on whom a knighthood has been conferred by a monarch.
  6. (literary) A brave, chivalrous and honorable man devoted to a noble cause or love interest.
  7. (chess) 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. (card games, dated) A playing card bearing the figure of a knight; the knave or jack.
  9. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Ypthima.
  10. (modern) Any mushroom belonging to genus Tricholoma.
Synonyms
  • (chess piece): horse (informal)
Hyponyms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Terms derived from the noun knight
Translations
See also
Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text)
♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟
king queen rook, castle bishop knight pawn

Etymology 2

From Middle English knighten, kniȝten, from the noun. Cognate with Middle High German knehten.

Verb

knight (third-person singular simple present knights, present participle knighting, simple past and past participle knighted)

  1. (transitive) To confer knighthood upon.
    The king knighted the young squire.
  2. (chess, transitive) To promote (a pawn) to a knight.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

See also

References

  • knight”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Middle English

Noun

knight

  1. Alternative form of knyght