Word.ws English Dictionary

knee jerk

knee jerk is the alternative form of knee-jerk.

Meaning of knee-jerk

Adjective

knee-jerk (comparative more knee-jerk, superlative most knee-jerk)

  1. Unthinking, not carefully considered, (nearly) automatic, spontaneous, easily predictable.
    • He gave a knee-jerk response.

See all 2 meanings of knee-jerk

Forms of knee jerk

Adjective
comparativemore knee jerk
superlativemost knee jerk
Noun
pluralknee jerks

Questions about knee jerk

What is knee jerk the alternative form of?
Knee jerk is the alternative form of knee-jerk.

Words near knee jerk in the dictionary

  1. knee guards
  2. knee high
  3. knee highs
  4. knee hollies
  5. knee holly
  6. knee jerk
  7. knee jerks
  8. knee kicker
  9. knee kickers
  10. knee pad
  11. knee pads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knee jerk (page history and authors); knee-jerk (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: “knee jerk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knee_jerk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.