AAAmerican Accent US
Illustration: the history of the word knee
ksilentnee
A sound people stopped saying

Why is the K in knee silent?

Knee was pronounced "k-NAY-oh" in Old English, K and all. German Knie still says the K. Here is when English dropped it and why the spelling stayed.

Then · Old English

cnēow

said like k-NAY-ow

1600s↓

Now · American English

knee/ni/

said NEE

The story

Knee is one of the oldest words in English. Old English cnēow comes down from a root that Indo-European languages share widely: the same ancestor gives Latin genū (hence genuflect, "bend the knee"), Greek góny and Sanskrit jānu. Closer to home, German Knie, Dutch knie and Swedish knä are all the same word.

In Old English and Middle English the K was pronounced, firmly, in front of the N — as it still is in German and Dutch, where Knie begins with a clear "k-n". English speakers simplified the cluster: in educated speech the kn- became plain N during the 1600s.

By then the spelling knee was long established in manuscripts and print, so the K stayed on the page. It is now one of a whole family of silent Ks — know, knife, knight, knock, knot — all of which lost the sound at around the same time.

How the word changed

  1. 1

    Old English (before 1100)

    cnēow

    K pronounced. Cousin of Latin genū and German Knie.

  2. 2

    Middle English (1100-1500)

    kne, knee

    Still said with K.

  3. 3

    1600s

    knee

    kn- simplifies to n- in educated speech.

  4. 4

    Modern English

    knee

    Said NEE; the K survives only in writing.

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Questions people ask

+Was the K in knee ever pronounced?

Yes. It was pronounced in Old and Middle English, and German Knie and Dutch knie still pronounce it. English dropped it in the 1600s.

+What words are related to knee?

German Knie, Latin genū — the source of genuflect — and Greek góny all come from the same ancient root.

More words with a story

knowNOH

Know comes from Old English cnāwan, pronounced with a K. It shares an ancient root with Latin cognoscere and Greek gnosis. Here is how the K went silent.

knightNITE

Knight was once pronounced with a K and a throaty GH, something like "k-NIKHT". Here is how both sounds disappeared and the spelling stayed.

knifeNIFE

Knife came into late Old English as cnīf, probably from the Vikings' Old Norse knífr, and the K was pronounced. Here is how it went silent.

Part of

Why is the K in knee silent?