knight

English Online Dictionary. What means knight‎? What does knight mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: nīt, IPA^(key): /naɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: night, nite

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• knyght

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.
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.
8. (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.
9. (card games, dated) A playing card bearing the figure of a knight; the knave or jack.
10. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Ypthima.
11. (modern) Any mushroom belonging to genus Tricholoma.

Synonyms

• (chess piece): horse (informal)

Hyponyms

• knight banneret, banneret

Coordinate terms

• knight's fee, knight service

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• ♘, ♞

• Appendix:Chess pieces

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)

2. (transitive) To confer knighthood upon.

   Synonym: beknight
3. (chess, transitive) To promote (a pawn) to a knight.

Synonyms

• dub

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• paladin
• baronet

References

• “knight”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Middle English

Noun

knight

1. Alternative form of knyght