knot means A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops. It carries an Arena rating of 1489, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, knot ranks #709 of 17,052 for Most Malleable Words, #2,046 of 17,052 for Most Vivid Words, #2,503 of 17,052 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,608 of 17,052 for Scariest Words.
knot is pronounced /nɒt/.
Why “knot” is a great word
A fastening made by looping and tying a piece of rope, string, or similar material on itself or to another such piece. From Middle English *knotte*, from Old English *cnotta*, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō*, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô* ("knot"), probably from Proto-Indo-European *gnod-* ("to bind"). Unlike "node," which denotes a point of intersection or branching in a neutral structure, or "untie," the action of loosening such a fastening, a knot is a deliberate, artful entanglement, the patient gathering of tension into cohesion. It is the sailor’s reef knot securing a sail against the wind, the frayed shoelace bow of a child’s first day of school, and the gnarled root of an ancient tree gripping stone like a clenched fist—a small, stubborn assertion of order against the persistent pull of things to come undone.
Etymology
From Middle English knotte, from Old English cnotta, from Proto-West Germanic *knottō, from Proto-Germanic *knuttô, *knudô (“knot”); probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnod- (“to bind”).
See also Old High German knoto (German Knoten, Dutch knot, Low German Knütte; also Old Norse knútr > Danish knude, Swedish knut, Norwegian knute, Faroese knútur, Icelandic hnútur; also Latin nōdus and its Romance descendants. Doublet of knout, node, and nodus.
* (unit of speed): From the practice of counting the number of knots in the logline (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.
noun
- A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.e.g.“Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.”
- A tangled clump of hair or similar.e.g.“The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.”
- A maze-like pattern.e.g.“Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art / In beds and curious knots, but nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.”
- A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).e.g.“A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.”
- A difficult situation.e.g.“I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.”
- The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.e.g.“When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots, since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.”
- Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.e.g.“Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.”
- A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin.
- A protuberant joint in a plant.
- Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.e.g.“[T]he Queen who sat / With lips severely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat, […]”
- The swelling of the bulbus glandis in members of the dog family, Canidae.
- The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.e.g.“the knot of the tale”
- A node (point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions)
- A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
- A group of people or things.e.g.“his ancient knot of dangerous adversarie”
- One of a variety of shore birds; red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or Tringa canutus).e.g.“My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calvered salmons, / Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have / The beards of barbels, served instead of salads […]”
verb
- To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.e.g.“We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.”
- To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc.e.g.“She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.”
- To unite closely; to knit together.e.g.“The party of the papists in England are become more knotted, both in dependence towards Spain, and amongst themselves.”
- To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.
- To form knots.
- To knit knots for a fringe.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- endknot 68% match — A knot, at the end of a rope, used to stop it fraying, as a handhold, or as decoration. vs knot →
- knotty 67% match — Of string or something stringlike: full of, or tied up, in knots. vs knot →
- knotted 65% match — Full of knots; knotty. vs knot →
- knottedness 62% match — The condition of being knotted vs knot →
- knurl 61% match — A contorted knot in wood. vs knot →
- beknotted 60% match — Knotted again and again; covered with knots. vs knot →
- knotoid 57% match — A form of knot diagram whose underlying curve is a segment rather than a circle. vs knot →
- noose 57% match — An adjustable loop of rope, such as the one placed around the neck in hangings, or the one at the end of a lasso. vs knot →