Knight Meaning
/ˈnaɪ̯t/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord.
nounA minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire.
Sentence Examples
The knight swore an oath of allegiance to the king.
The brave knight steps forward and kisses the lady on the hand.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the story, the brave ____ wore shining armor and fought the dragon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
In the game of chess, the ____ move is quite unique because it can jump over other pieces easily today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English knight, knyght, kniht, from Old English cniht (“boy; servant, knight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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 […]"
— 2001, Michael S. Drake, Problematics of Military Power: Government, Discipline and the Subject of Violence, →ISBN, page 97:
"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."
— 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 54:
"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."
— 2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, pages 5, 22:
"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."
— 1971, Clayton C. Barbeau, Future of the family:
"Though teams from China have hoisted the Summoner’s Cup, which goes to the Worlds champion, it’s always been South Korean mid laners who have starred on those teams. Erzberger said Knight wants to be the first Chinese mid laner to hoist that trophy — and maybe become a national treasure himself."
— 2023 November 10, Daniel Brown, “League of Legends Worlds: Can ‘Golden Left Hand’ top ‘Faker’ to earn a grand slam?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2024:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the story, the brave ____ wore shining armor and fought the dragon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
In the game of chess, the ____ move is quite unique because it can jump over other pieces easily today.