knee

/niː//ni/

knee noun: in humans, the joint or the region of the joint in the middle part of the leg between the thigh and the shank.

Image: David Shankbone, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

knee (plural knees or (obsolete or dialectal) kneen)

In humans, the joint or the region of the joint in the middle part of the leg between the thigh and the shank.
- Penny was wearing a miniskirt, so she skinned her exposed knees when she fell.
- He made him ſtoup perforce vnto his knee, / And doe vnwilling worſhip to the Saint, / That on his ſhield depainted he did ſee[…]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 249
In the horse and allied animals, the carpal joint, corresponding to the wrist in humans.
(non-technical) The tarsal joint, uniting the tarsometatarsus and the tibiotarsus (homologous to the human ankle).
The joint uniting the tibiotarsus and the femur, typically hidden beneath plumage.
The part of a garment that covers the knee.
A piece of timber or metal formed with an angle somewhat in the shape of the human knee when bent.
- Deck beams were supported by hanging knees, triangular pieces of wood typically found underneath the timbers they are designed to support, but in this case found above them.1980, Richard W. Unger, The Ship in the Medieval Economy 600-1600, page 41
(archaic) An act of kneeling, especially to show respect or courtesy.
- Give them title, knee, and approbation.c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- […] and he made a knee to the Caesar of Patna, giving that man all honour due to him.2009, C. E. Murphy, The Pretender's Crown, page 127
Any knee-shaped item or sharp angle in a line; an inflection point.
- the knee of a graph
A blow made with the knee; a kneeing.
- Tante was groggy but not quite out so Winnie gave him a knee to the jaw that Rose had shown her, and that was enough. He slumped like a rag-doll to the floor.2016, Clive Mullis, Scooters Yard
(figuratively) The presence of a parent etc., where a young child acquires early knowledge.
- The duty is, or should be, a thing taught at one's father's knee, and the structure of the family gently enforces it.1978, Time, volume 111, numbers 18-26, page 49
- This has significant implications for sacramental theology which it seems Pusey even realised in the way he spoke of his early life and of learning all he knew about the Eucharist and the Catholic faith at his mother's knee, […]2015, Brian Douglas, The Eucharistic Theology of Edward Bouverie Pusey, page 113

Verb

knee (third-person singular simple present knees, present participle kneeing, simple past and past participle kneed)

(archaic, transitive) To kneel to.
- I could as well be brought / To knee his throne and, squire-like, pension beg / To keep base life afootc. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
(transitive) To poke or strike with the knee.
- When I blocked her from leaving, she kneed me in the groin.
(reflexive) To move on the knees; to use the knees to move.
- Hassan kneed himself up, over, in, soundlessly, feet on floor, knife out, eyes like blunter knife trying to cut darkness.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 489

knee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

knee in Hindi

joint in the middle of the leg and area around it: घुटना ghuṭnā

knee in Tamil

joint in the middle of the leg and area around it: முழங்கால் muḻaṅkāl

knee in Marathi

joint in the middle of the leg and area around it: गुडघा guḍghā

knee in Urdu

joint in the middle of the leg and area around it: گُھٹْنا ghuṭnā

More languagesFewer languages

knee in Bengali: হাঁটু hãṭu
knee in Telugu: మోకాలు mōkālu
knee in Malayalam: കാൽമുട്ട് kālmuṭṭŭ
knee in Kannada: ಮೊಣಕಾಲು moṇakālu
knee in Punjabi: ਗੋਡਾ goḍā, گوڈا goḍā
knee in Gujarati: ઘૂંટણ ghū̃ṭaṇ
knee in Odia: ଆଣ୍ଠୁ āṇṭhu
knee in Sanskrit: जानु jānu
knee in Sinhala: දණ daṇa
knee in Assamese: আঁঠু ãthu
knee in Nepali: घुँडा ghũḍā
knee in Pashto: زنګون zangun
knee in Tagalog: tuhod
knee in Arabic: رُكْبَة rukba
knee in Malay: lutut, tuhut, dengkul
knee in Indonesian: lutut, dengkul
knee in Thai: เข่า kào, หัวเข่า hǔua-kào
knee in Vietnamese: đầu gối, gối
knee in Myanmar: ဒူး du:

Examples of knee in a sentence

One moment the company was flying high, the next it was on its knees.
He fell off his bike and skinned his knee on the concrete.
She was on her hands and knees scrabbling in the mud, looking for her missing wedding ring.

All 40 example sentences with knee

Forms of knee

Noun
plural	knees
plural (obsolete, dialectal)	kneen
Verb
third-person singular present	knees
present participle	kneeing
past participle	kneed
past	kneed

Plural of knee: knees

Origin of knee

Inherited from Middle English kne, from Old English cnēow, from Proto-West Germanic *kneu, from Proto-Germanic *knewą, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵnéw-o-m, a thematic derivative of *ǵónu. See also West Frisian knibbel, Low German Knee, Knie, Dutch knie, German Knie, Danish knæ, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kne, Swedish knä; also Hittite 𒄀𒉡 (genu), Latin genū, Tocharian A kanweṃ (dual), Tocharian B kenī, Ancient Greek γόνυ (gónu, “knee”), γωνία (gōnía, “corner, angle”), Welsh glin (“knee”), Old Armenian ծունր (cunr), Avestan 𐬲𐬥𐬎𐬨 (žnum), Sanskrit जानु (jā́nu). The obsolete plural kneen is from Middle English kneen, knen, kneon, kneuwene.

Phrases with knee

59 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with knee

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about knee

What does knee mean?: Knee means in humans, the joint or the region of the joint in the middle part of the leg between the thigh and the shank.
What is knee in Hindi?: Knee in Hindi is घुटना (ghuṭnā). See Knee meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is knee?: Knee can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce knee?: Knee is pronounced /niː/ (UK).
What is the plural of knee?: The plural of knee is knees.

Words near knee in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nee2.wav, en-us-knee.ogg.

Cite this entry: “knee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.