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How to pronounce knife

Knife is pronounced NIFE, with one syllable. The k is silent, so it sounds like nife and rhymes with life and wife. The plural, knives, is NIVES, with a v.

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  • 1 syllable
  • Stress on NIFE
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

knife

One syllable

noun · a tool with a sharp blade for cutting food or other things

  1. NIFEnaɪf (stressed)
  • US /naɪf/NIFE Recorded voice
  • UK /naɪf/NIFE Your device’s voice

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.

Knife, sound by sound

Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.

USUK American and British English/naɪf/

  1. NIFEstressed

    • /n/as in now
    • /aɪ/as in my
    • /f/as in fall

Say knife yourself

Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes knife, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.

Tip. The k is silent. Start with N: NIFE, like life with an N. The plural is knives.

Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.

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knife

    Common knife pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say NIFE.

    • Notkuh-NIFE

      Saying the k. Start with the tongue behind your top teeth for N.

    • NotNEEF

      Reading i as in machine. In knife it is the eye sound, as in life.

    • NotNIVE

      Using a v in the singular. Only the plural, knives, has the v.

    Knife in a sentence

    Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.

    • Use a sharp knife to cut the bread.

    • Put a knife and fork next to each plate.

    • The knife is in the second drawer.

    Why is the k in knife silent?

    English used to say the k. In Old English the word was cnif, and the c and the n were both sounded. Around the 1600s speakers stopped saying k before n at the start of a word, but the spelling stayed.

    That is why so many kn- words begin with a silent letter: knee, knit, know, knot, knock and knight. If you see kn at the start of an English word, say only the n.

    The plural has one more trap. The f in knife changes to v in knives, and the word is said NIVES. Cambridge and Oxford show the same single vowel, the eye sound of my, in both accents.

    Words that sound like knife

    Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.

    More words with silent letters

    All 170 difficult words

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