Word.ws English Dictionary

knock wood

knock wood is the alternative form of knock on wood.

Meaning of knock on wood

Verb

knock on wood (third-person singular simple present knocks on wood, present participle knocking on wood, simple past and past participle knocked on wood)

  1. (Philippines, US, idiomatic) To take a customary action to ward off some misfortune that is believed to be attracted by a presumptuous statement.
    Synonyms:
    touch wood

See all 2 meanings of knock on wood

Forms of knock wood

third-person singular presentknocks wood
present participleknocking wood
past participleknocked wood
pastknocked wood

Questions about knock wood

What is knock wood the alternative form of?
Knock wood is the alternative form of knock on wood.

Words near knock wood in the dictionary

  1. knock the stuffing out of
  2. knock the wind out of someone's sails
  3. knock together
  4. knock under
  5. knock up
  6. knock wood
  7. knock-'em-downs
  8. knock-about
  9. knock-and-announce
  10. knock-and-talk
  11. knock-and-talks

Source and license

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