Knight

/ˈnaɪ̯t/ · noun

Meaning

(historical) A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord..

Definitions by Sense

1. (historical) A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord.
2. (historical) A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire.
3. (by extension) An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
4. (law, historical) A person obliged to provide knight service in exchange for maintenance of an estate held in knight's fee.
5. (modern) A person on whom a knighthood has been conferred by a monarch.
6. (literary) A brave, chivalrous and honorable man devoted to a noble cause or love interest.
7. (chess) A chess piece, often in the shape of a horse's head, that is moved two squares in one direction and one at right angles to that direction in a single move, leaping over any intervening pieces.
8. (card games, dated) A playing card bearing the figure of a knight; the knave or jack.

Example Sentences

Not all knights held fiefs, and it was not unusual for knights to buy themselves freedom from the obligations of the fief, or even to abscond with the arms provided by their lord, becoming a part of the large number of unenfeoffed, wandering knights available for hire […]

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

There are two tombs, each bearing effigies of a knight and his lady. One is 14th century, the other 15th century. The earlier knight wears chain mail and his lady has long, flowing hair. The later knight has plate armour, and his wife wears a wimple.

The knight may move to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal. […] There are two knights, on the squares g1 and e1, and one of them moves to the square f3: either Ngf3 or Nef3, as the case may be.

The king knighted the young squire.

Highborn boys were sent off to another noble household at the age of about seven, to serve strenuously as pages and later as esquires to their lord before they themselves were knighted, looked around for a "lady" and incidentally got married and produced more knightlets, whom they never got to know at all well.

Synonyms for knight

Antonyms for knight

Related Words

Word Forms

• knights
• knyght
• knighting
• knighted

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions