Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell kneel

hear itkneel/nil/verbSilent and tricky

What it means: To rest on one or both knees.

In a sentence: Every night, I kneel by my bed to say goodnight.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double e, and a silent k. Often misspelled as kneal or neal.

Same family: kneels, kneeling, knelt, knee, kneecap. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Kneel comes from Old English "cnēowlian," related to the noun "knee." The silent k in both "knee" and "kneel" used to be pronounced hundreds of years ago, but over time English speakers dropped the k sound and kept the old spelling.

Patterns it uses: Silent letters

Try spelling it

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