noun · verb · 37 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
Received-Pronunciation:nŏt
Received-Pronunciation:/nɒt/
General-American:nŏt
General-American:/nɑt/
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
homophone: not
homophone: naught (cot–caught merger)
rhymes with -ɒt
CMU ARPABET:N AA1 T
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A tangled clump of hair or similar.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
A maze-like pattern.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: mathematics, sciences
Examples
A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
A difficult situation.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
noun
Meaning 6
The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots, since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
noun
Meaning 7
Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
8
noun
Meaning 8
A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
9
noun
Meaning 9
A protuberant joint in a plant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
10
noun
Meaning 10
Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
11
noun
Meaning 11
The swelling of the bulbus glandis in members of the dog family, Canidae.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
12
noun
Meaning 12
The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
the knot of the tale
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
13
noun
Meaning 13
A node (point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
14
noun
Meaning 14
A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
15
noun
Meaning 15
A group of people or things.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
1968, Bryce Walton, Harpoon Gunner, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, (1968), page 20, He pushed through knots of whalemen grouped with their families and friends, and surrounded by piles of luggage.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
16
noun
Meaning 16
A bond of union; a connection; a tie.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
17
noun
Meaning 17
A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: aeronautics, aerospace, aviation, business, engineering, natural-sciences, nautical, physical-sciences, transport
Examples
Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: kn, kt
Antonyms: none provided
18
noun
Meaning 18
A unit of indicated airspeed, calibrated airspeed, or equivalent airspeed, which varies in its relation to the unit of speed so as to compensate for the effects of different ambient atmospheric conditions on aircraft performance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
In the early stages of reentry, due to the extremely-rarefied air at these altitudes, the space shuttle flew at only one to a few knots equivalent airspeed, even when its actual speed was many thousands of knots.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
19
noun
Meaning 19
A nautical mile.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: nautical, transport
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: nm
Antonyms: none provided
20
noun
Meaning 20
The bulbus glandis.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
21
noun
Meaning 21
One of a variety of shore birds; red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or Tringa canutus).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
22
verb
Meaning 22
To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
23
verb
Meaning 23
To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
24
verb
Meaning 24
To unite closely; to knit together.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
25
verb
Meaning 25
To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, rare, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
26
verb
Meaning 26
To form knots.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
27
verb
Meaning 27
To knit knots for a fringe.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
28
noun
Meaning 28
a sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the southern hemisphere
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: greyback, grayback, Calidris canutus
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sandpiper
29
noun
Meaning 29
any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Broader terms: create from raw material, create from raw stuff
Narrower terms: macrame
History
Etymology
From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”). See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus. * (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the logline (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every 1⁄120 of a mile.
Supposed to be derived from the name of King Canute, with whom the bird was a favourite article of food. See the specific epithet canutus.
Across languages
Translations
514 source translations are retained for this English entry.