knight
noun · in the Middle Ages, a soldier of high rank who fought on a horse
- NITEnaɪt (stressed)
- NITEnaɪt (stressed)
- US /naɪt/NITE Recorded voice
- UK /naɪt/NITE Your device’s voice
How to pronounce knight
Knight is pronounced NITE, with one syllable, exactly like night. The k and the gh are both silent. American and British English say it the same way.
- 1 syllable
- Stress on NITE
- Sounds like night
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Knight, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
USUK American and British English/naɪt/
NITEstressed
- /n/as in now
- /aɪ/as in my
- /t/as in tea
Say knight yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes knight, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Say NITE, exactly like night. The k and the gh are both silent.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
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knight
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Common knight pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say NITE.
Not
kuh-NITESaying the k. The word starts with N.
Not
NIG-utSaying the g. The gh is silent and the vowel is the eye sound.
Not
NEETReading i as in machine. It is the eye sound, as in night.
Knight 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.
The knight put on his heavy armor.
In the story, a brave knight saves the village.
He was made a knight by the queen.
Why are knight and night said the same?
They are homophones: two words, same sound, different spelling. A knight is a soldier on a horse, and a night is the dark part of the day.
Both words were once said with more sounds. In Old English the word was cniht, and speakers said the k and a rough sound for h, like the ch in Scottish loch. Over time both sounds were lost, but the spelling kept them.
So the spelling shows the old pronunciation, not the new one. When you see kn at the start, say n. When you see igh, say the eye sound of my. Knight is simply n + eye + t.
Words that sound like knight
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
Say words like knight out loud with Slova
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