Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell knead

Knead is spelled K-N-E-A-D.

hear itknead/nid/verbSilent and tricky

What it means: To work dough by pressing and folding.

In a sentence: She helps her mom knead the dough for cookies.

The part people get wrong

Watch for a silent k.

Same family: kneads, kneaded, kneading, massage, mix. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Knead comes from Old English "cnedan," meaning to press or form by pressing, and it used to be spelled with a hard "cn" sound at the start. Over time the "k" sound disappeared in speech, but the silent letter stayed in the spelling, just like in "knee" and "knife."

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