Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use knack in a sentence

22 example sentences · noun, verb

Knack means a readiness in performance; aptness at doing something. Example: “He had a knack for running afoul of the law.”

Examples of knack by meaning

nounA readiness in performance; aptness at doing something.

  • These men had some uncanny knack of knowing when the steel was right, and like many such things, it just could not be put into a textbook on the subject.1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14
  • The sophist runs for cover to the darkness of what is not and attaches himself to it by some knack of his;2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 254a
  • And the Premier League's all-time top-goalscoring midfielder proved he has not lost the knack of being in the right place at the right time with a trio of clinical finishes.2011 October 2, Jonathan Jurejko, “Bolton 1–5 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport

More sentences with knack

  • He had a knack for running afoul of the law.From the entry afoul
  • He had a knack for getting in trouble.From the entry in trouble
  • She had a knack for overstatement.From the entry overstatement
  • Huaxi kept ahead of the pack thanks to Wu's knack of reading the political tea leaves.2010, Jonathan Watts, “Gross Domestic Pollution”, in When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind- or Destroy It, Scribner…. From the entry Huaxi
  • WHITLEY Impressively cheekboned folk pop merchant has a knack with banter and hooks .2009 January 15, “Rock, Pop and Roots”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2009. From the entry cheekboned
  • Louis Cardinals, a team that has a knack for turning around pitchers down on their luck.2008 July 1, Mel Antonen, “Rays, A's using same formula for success”, in USA Today, retrieved 03 Nov 2008. From the entry down on one's luck
  • Melonheads don’t seem to have developed the knack of raising food.2005, Joseph A. Citro, “Fabled People and Places”, in Weird New England: Your Travel Guide to New England's Local Legends and Best Kept…. From the entry melonhead
  • He has that rare Joycean knack for illuminating an entire universe with one simple detail.2004, Elisabeth Egan, "A world of talking cats and lost, lonely boys" (review of Moe's Villa and Other Stories by James Purdy), San…. From the entry turn a phrase
  • Pa had a knack for growing and he spent many hours pampering his crops.2004, Dave Stevens, My Western Roots, →ISBN, page 1. From the entry Texas tea
  • He's smart, relaxed and impossibly telegenic, with a knack for coming across as humble and sincere.2003 January 19, Abi Daruvalla, “Not Just a Pretty Face”, in Time, retrieved 02 May 2014. From the entry not just a pretty face
  • 'I'm knacked,' he said as he sat down on the end of the bed.'2001, D. T. Blakeley, At the Precipice of Poverty: A Croydon Chronicle, page 198. From the entry knacked
  • She'd long since caught the knack of moving with him, and closed her arms and legs around him.2013, Grace Burrowes, Once Upon a Tartan, Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 287. From the entry pull out
  • Burrell, known for his knack for tormenting the Mets, is expected to inflict similar damage in the ultracompetitive American League East.2009 January 6, Ben Shpigel, “Pat Burrell Signs With Rays; Milton Bradley Expected to Join Cubs”, in New York Times. From the entry ultracompetitive
  • Well remembered as a visual comedienne, she also had the verbal knack of putting all sorts of topspin on a line.1994, Richard D. Heldenfels, Television's Greatest Year: 1954, page 70. From the entry topspin
  • David Milarch calls him the “rain man of trees” because of his brilliance with tree data and his uncanny knack for finding the big ones.2013, Jim Robbins, The Man Who Plants Trees, →ISBN. From the entry rain man
  • Streetwear transcends downtown skate parks and emerges as instantly rebloggable on Tumblr dashboards everywhere thanks to celebrities with a knack for LOLs and labels.2013 October, Cori Rosen, “Label Maker”, in Jerk, volume 12, number 1, Syracuse University, page 47. From the entry rebloggable
  • One thing Tuchel did not need to learn was how important Kane is to England, as the captain proved once again he has the knack for a timely goal.2026 June 6, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 New Zealand”, in BBC. From the entry put one's feet up
  • Jones being a man with an effortless knack for melody and arrangement made him as important, even if his lyrics never matched the best of Strummer's street-poet songwords.2014, Sean Egan, The Clash: The Only Band That Mattered, page 8. From the entry songword
  • The soul of this community is local queen bee Sherry Conrad (Search Party alum Shalita Grant, the season’s MVP), an officious, controlling momfluencer with a knack for stealing the spotlight.2021 October 17, Judy Berman, “You Season 3 Is the Best Installment Yet—and a Brilliant Send-Up of Suburbia”, in Time Magazine. From the entry momfluencer

Meaning of knack

  1. noun A readiness in performance; aptness at doing something.
  2. noun A petty contrivance; a toy.
  3. noun Something performed, or to be done, requiring aptness and dexterity.

Full definition of knack

Questions about knack in a sentence

How do you use knack in a sentence?
Knack is used as a noun and verb. For example: “He had a knack for running afoul of the law.”
What is a short sentence with knack?
“She had a knack for overstatement.”
What does knack mean?
Knack means a readiness in performance; aptness at doing something.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knack (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use knack in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/knack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.