knell
English
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knell¹
- /nɛl/ Canada, UK, US
- /nel/ Australia
Sounds like Nell · Rhymes with -ɛl
Where it comes from
From Middle English knyllen, from Old English cnyllan (“to strike; knock; clap”), from Proto-West Germanic *knuʀlijan, from Proto-Germanic *knuzlijaną (“to beat; push; mash”), from Proto-Indo-European *gen- (“to squeeze, pinch, kink, ball up”).
verb knells · knelling · knelled
- To ring a bell slowly, especially for a funeral; to toll. I’ll make thee sick at heart, before I leave thee, And groan, and die indeed, and be worth nothing, Not worth a blessing nor a bell to knell for thee […]
- To signal or proclaim something (especially a death) by ringing a bell. Let thy friends be as the dead in doom, And build to them a final tomb; Let the starred shade that nightly falls Still celebrate their funerals, And the bell of beetle and of bee Knell their melodious memory.
- To summon by, or as if by, ringing a bell.
noun knells
- The sound of a bell knelling; a toll (particularly one signalling a death). […]he is able to pierce a corselet with his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery.
- A sign of the end or demise of something or someone. But at the close of the war there was less thought of what [Britain] had retained than of what she had lost. She was parted from her American Colonies; and at the moment such a parting seemed to be the knell of her greatness.
Knell²
proper noun Knells
- A surname.
Translations
Every language
verb to ring a bell slowly
| Español | doblar, clamorear, encordar |
|---|---|
| Français | sonner le glas |
| Русский | звони́ть zvonítʹ |
verb to signal or proclaim something by ringing a bell
| Français | sonner le glas |
|---|
noun sound of a bell knelling
| Français | glas |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Geläut, Abschiedsgeläut, letztes Geläut |
| Italiano | rintocco |
| Русский | звон zvon |
Talk about this word "knell." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/knell. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. knell. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/knell "knell." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/knell.Cite this
@misc{knell_2026,
title = {knell},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/knell},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
