knight

Meaning

Noun

1. (historical) A young servant or follower; a trained military attendant in service of a lord.
2. (historical) A minor nobleman with an honourable military rank who had served as a page and squire.
3. (broadly) An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
4. (historical) A person obliged to provide knight service in exchange for maintenance of an estate held in knight's fee.
5. (modern) A person on whom a knighthood has been conferred by a monarch.
6. (literary) A brave, chivalrous and honorable man devoted to a noble cause or love interest.
7. A chess piece, often in the shape of a horse's head, that is moved two squares in one direction and one at right angles to that direction in a single move, leaping over any intervening pieces.
8. (dated) A playing card bearing the figure of a knight; the knave or jack.
9. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Ypthima.
10. (modern) Any mushroom belonging to genus Tricholoma.
11. A species of nymphalid butterfly, Lebadea martha, found in tropical and subtropical Asia.

Verb

1. (transitive) To confer knighthood upon.
2. (transitive) To promote (a pawn) to a knight.

Synonyms

cavalier

dub

hero

🦸‍♂️

champion

chevalier

horse

🐴

heroine

🦸‍♀️

ritter

ennoble

horseman

thane

lord

fighter

nobleman

paladin

quarter horse

rider

servant

squire

steed

title

trooper

vaulting horse

warrior

youth

side horse

Sir

thegn

confer a knighthood

honous

horse rider

cavalero

bachelor

raise nobility peerage

baron

boy

👦

cavalryman

dragonfly

entitle

gallant

gentle

gentleman

🤵‍♂️

knight-errant

long horse

master

mount

pommel horse

pony

Translations

cavalier

chevalier

Ritter

caballero

cavaliere

Springer

ridder

cavallo

🐴

paard

🐴

ιππότης

caballo

🐴

cavalo

🐴

cavaleiro

Pronounced as (IPA)

/naɪt/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: knight

Inherited from Old English: cniht

Inherited from Middle English: knighten

Cognate with Middle High German: knehten

In summary

From Middle English knight, knyght, kniht, from Old English cniht (“boy; servant, knight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.