How to spell knives

hear it/naɪvz/nounLong vowels

What it means: Sharp tools used for cutting.

In a sentence: The chef used sharp knives to cut the vegetables.

The part people get wrong

Watch for a silent k. Often misspelled as knifs or knifes.

Same family: knife, knifing, pocketknife, butterknife, blade. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Knives” comes from Old English *cnīf* (knife) and follows an old English pattern where many nouns ending in -f change to -ves in the plural, like leaf→leaves and wolf→wolves. The silent “k” at the beginning has been there since Middle English, but the /k/ sound stopped being pronounced hundreds of years ago.

Patterns it uses: Silent letters · Drop the e before a suffix?

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

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