Meaning & use
knee length
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
Reaching down to the knees, used especially of clothes such as skirts, coats and socks.
Grammar: Often before a noun with a hyphen: knee-length boots; you cannot say more knee length.
Patterns
- a knee length something
- something is knee length
She wore a knee-length dress to the interview.
The coat was knee length and kept out the wind.
He bought knee-length shorts for the hike.
noununcountablerare
The distance from the floor or ground up to a person's knees, or the point where clothing ends at the knee.
Grammar: Used with the: the skirt hit the knee length.
Patterns
- to the knee length
The hem falls at knee length on most people.
The snow reached knee length by morning.
Cut the fabric to knee length before hemming.
Common combinations
- knee-length skirt
- A knee-length skirt suits most offices.
- knee-length socks
- Players pull up their knee-length socks before the match.
- knee-length coat
- She bought a knee-length coat for winter.
- knee-length boots
- The knee-length boots were made of soft leather.
- just below knee length
- The dress is just below knee length.
Synonyms and how they differ
- below-the-knee
- Means the garment ends lower than the knee, not exactly at it.
- midi
- Is a fashion term for skirts and dresses, usually reaching mid-calf, a bit longer than knee length.
- short
- Is vague and relative, whereas knee length gives an exact point.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: knee length or knee-high?
knee length vs knee-high
Knee-high is used for boots, socks and water depth; knee length is mostly for skirts, dresses and coats.
Practice
Her skirt was ____, so it stopped right at her knees.
Choose one answer.
Knee length means the hem reaches the knees. The other options describe much longer or shorter lengths.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “knee length”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.