knife – English noun declension

Noun: knife

Singular	knife
Plural	knives

Sample Sentences

Nouns inflected like knife

home life, social life, tripewife, kitchen knife, sushi knife, everyday life, working life, boywife, mora knife, clasp knife, trench knife, flick-knife, master butter knife, painting knife, deer horn knife, Yakutian knife, sheath-knife, old wife, survival knife, breadknife, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)

Etymology

1. From Middle English knyf, knif, from late Old English cnīf, from Old Norse knífr or Proto-West Germanic *knīb, from Proto-Germanic *knībaz, from *knīpaną (“to pinch”), Proto-Indo-European *gneybʰ- (compare Lithuanian gnýbti, žnýbti (“to pinch”), gnaibis (“pinching”)). Displaced native Middle English sax (“knife”), from Old English seax; and Middle English coutel, qwetyll (“knife”) from Old French coutel.
2. * The verb is first attested in 1865. The variant knive is first attested in 1733.
3. Cognates
4. Cognate with Yola kunnife (“knife”), North Frisian knif (“knife”), Dutch knijf (“long pointy knife, poniard”), German Knifte (“rifle; thick slicebread”), German Low German Knief (“knife”), Luxembourgish Knäip (“paring knife”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk kniv (“knife”), Faroese knívur (“knife”), Icelandic hnífur, knífur (“knife”), Swedish knif, kniv (“knife”). See: Middle English Nouns 'knyf', Old Norse Nouns 'knífr', Dutch Nouns 'knijf', German Nouns 'Knifte', Faroese Nouns 'knívur', Icelandic Nouns 'hnífur'.

Verbs referencing "knife"

Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns kniv, Dutch Nouns knijf, German Nouns Knifte, English Nouns petty knife.