knock-on effect
knock-on effect noun: a secondary, often unintended effect; a repercussion, chain reaction.
Noun
knock-on effect (plural knock-on effects)
- A secondary, often unintended effect; a repercussion, chain reaction.
- If a coach arrives late, it has a knock-on effect on the entire coach station.
- There are various knock-on effects [to the international boycott of the Palestinian government]. PA [Palestinian Authority] services, particularly health and education, have deteriorated sharply because of supply shortages and strikes by workers. Much of the time hospitals have been seeing only...2007, March 24th, The Economist magazine, page 51
Examples of knock-on effect in a sentence
- There are various knock-on effects [to the international boycott of the Palestinian government].2007, March 24th, The Economist magazine, page 51
- That had a knock-on effect on the other orders.2020 September 9, Paul Clifton, “SWR unveils £1bn 'Arterios' for the "heart of our network"”, in Rail, page 26:
Forms of knock-on effect
| plural | knock-on effects |
|---|
Origin of knock-on effect
knock-on + effect
Questions about knock-on effect
- What does knock-on effect mean?
- Knock-on effect means a secondary, often unintended effect; a repercussion, chain reaction.
- How do you use knock-on effect in a sentence?
- There are various knock-on effects [to the international boycott of the Palestinian government].
- What part of speech is knock-on effect?
- Knock-on effect is a noun.
- What is the plural of knock-on effect?
- The plural of knock-on effect is knock-on effects.
Words near knock-on effect in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: knock-on effect (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: “knock-on effect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knock-on_effect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.