Word.ws English Dictionary

housemaid's knee

housemaid's knee noun: swelling of the bursa before the kneecap.

Noun

housemaid's knee (countable and uncountable, plural housemaid's knees)

  1. swelling of the bursa before the kneecap.
    Synonyms:
    prepatellar bursitis

Synonyms of housemaid's knee

  • prepatellar bursitis

Forms of housemaid's knee

pluralhousemaid's knees

Origin of housemaid's knee

So called because it used to be prevalent among housemaids, who spent time kneeling on floors to clean them.

Questions about housemaid's knee

What does housemaid's knee mean?
Housemaid's knee means swelling of the bursa before the kneecap.
What part of speech is housemaid's knee?
Housemaid's knee is a noun.
What is the plural of housemaid's knee?
The plural of housemaid's knee is housemaid's knees.

Words near housemaid's knee in the dictionary

  1. houselling
  2. housels
  3. Housely
  4. housemade
  5. housemaid
  6. housemaid's knee
  7. housemaided
  8. housemaiden
  9. housemaidenly
  10. housemaidens
  11. housemaiding

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: housemaid's knee (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “housemaid's knee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/housemaid%27s_knee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.