Meaning & use
knee
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Meanings
nouncountable
The joint in the middle of your leg that connects the thigh to the lower leg and allows you to bend your leg.
Grammar: Countable: one knee, two knees. Often used with 'on': 'on your knees'.
Patterns
- on one's knees
- bend one's knees
- hurt one's knee
She fell and scraped her knee.
He got down on his knees to look under the bed.
The doctor examined my knee after the football match.
nouncountable
The part of a piece of clothing, especially trousers, that covers the knee.
Grammar: Usually in the plural 'knees' when talking about clothing: 'The knees of his jeans were worn.'
Patterns
- the knees of something
- worn at the knees
The knees of his trousers were dirty from gardening.
These jeans have reinforced knees for extra durability.
She patched the knees of her old jeans.
verbtransitive
To hit someone or something with your knee.
Grammar: Takes an object: 'He kneed the ball.' Regular past tense: kneed.
Patterns
- knee someone in something
- knee something
He kneed the attacker in the stomach.
She kneed the ball forward to her teammate.
The player was penalized for kneeing his opponent.
Word forms
| plural | knees |
|---|---|
| third person singular | knees |
| past tense | kneed |
| past participle | kneed |
| present participle | kneeing |
Common combinations
- knee injury
- He missed the season because of a knee injury.
- knee joint
- The knee joint can be damaged by running on hard surfaces.
- on bended knee
- He proposed to her on bended knee.
- bring someone to their knees
- The economic crisis brought the company to its knees.
- knee-high
- The grass was knee-high in the field.
Word family
- kneel verb
- To go down on your knees.
- kneecap noun
- The small bone covering the front of the knee.
- knee-deep adjective
- Deep enough to reach your knees.
Commonly confused: knee or kneel?
knee vs kneel
Kneel is a verb meaning to go down on your knees. Knee can be a noun (the joint) or a verb meaning to hit with the knee. 'He kneeled down' means he lowered himself; 'He kneed the ball' means he hit it with his knee.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'knee' correctly.
Choose one answer.
Option 2 correctly uses 'knee' as a noun for the body joint. Option 1 is wrong because you would use 'kneed' (past tense) but 'kneed the door' is unusual; you might knee a ball or an attacker, not a door. Option 3 is wrong because cats 'knead' (with an 'a'), not 'knee'. Option 4 is not a natural phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “knee”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.