Word.ws English Dictionary

knife's edge

knife's edge is the alternative form of knife-edge.

Meaning of knife-edge

Noun

knife-edge (plural knife-edges)

  1. A small piece of metal, usually steel, sharpened to an acute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as the fulcrum of a pendulum, scalebeam, or other piece required to oscillate with minimal friction.
    • Again, as the pendulum was provided with sharp knife-edges on opposite sides near its upper end, shaped like a V, on which it swung, the greater the weight of the pendulum the more wear there would be on these knife-edges.1894 February, James Howard Gore, “The Shape of the Earth from a Pendulum”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 44
  2. (figuratively) A precarious balance that could be upset by a very small force in either direction.
    • The game was on a knife-edge.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: the edge of a knife.

Forms of knife's edge

pluralknife's edges

Questions about knife's edge

What is knife's edge the alternative form of?
Knife's edge is the alternative form of knife-edge.

Words near knife's edge in the dictionary

  1. knife up
  2. knife urn
  3. knife urns
  4. knife wand
  5. knife wands
  6. knife's edge
  7. knife's edges
  8. knife-and-fork
  9. knife-boy
  10. knife-boys
  11. knife-colored

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knife's edge (page history and authors); knife-edge (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: “knife's edge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knife%27s_edge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.