Word.ws English Dictionary

knitten

/ˈnɪtən/

knitten is the past participle of knit.

Meaning of knit

Verb

knit (third-person singular simple present knits, present participle knitting, simple past knit or (dialectal) knat, past participle knit or knitted or (dialectal) knitten)

  1. (ambitransitive) To turn thread or yarn into a piece of fabric by forming loops that are pulled through each other. This can be done by hand with needles or by machine.
    • to knit a stocking
  2. (ambitransitive) To create a stitch by pulling the working yarn through an existing stitch from back to front.
    • Stitches that are knitted look like little V’s when seen from the front.
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To join closely and firmly together.
    • The fight for survival knitted the men closely together.
  4. (intransitive) To become closely and firmly joined; become compacted.
  5. (intransitive) To grow together.
    • All those seedlings knitted into a kaleidoscopic border.
  6. (transitive) To combine from various elements.
    • The witness knitted together his testimony from contradictory pieces of hearsay.

See all 11 meanings of knit

Adjective

knitten (not comparable)

  1. (dialectal, hypercorrect, nonstandard, sometimes) knitted, knit
    • With his stick in his hand and his hat of broad brim, / And his comforter red to keep warm his chin, / And his strong knitten gloves and old coat of grey, […]1858, James Whitaker, “The Old Prayer Book”, in The Village Lyre: A Collection of Fugitive Poems, Leeds: J. Heaton and Sons, page 189
    • The best sculptor might haply be glad to find in a corner some fragment of a clay model on which his fingers were employed before the knuckles were well knitten.1883, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, volume Fourth Series, Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 268

Origin of knitten

From knit + -en (past participle ending of some strong verbs), in mimicry of bitten, sitten (now dialectal), etc.

Questions about knitten

What does knitten mean?
Knitten means knitted, knit.
What is knitten the past participle of?
Knitten is the past participle of knit.
What part of speech is knitten?
Knitten is an adjective.
How do you pronounce knitten?
Knitten is pronounced /ˈnɪtən/.

Words near knitten in the dictionary

  1. knitted up
  2. knitted yoghurt
  3. Knittel
  4. Knittelfeld
  5. Knittels
  6. knitten
  7. knitter
  8. knitters
  9. knittest
  10. knitteth
  11. knittin'

Source and license

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