knell

American  

[nel] / nɛl /

noun

1. the sound made by a bell rung slowly, especially for a death or a funeral.

2. a sound or sign announcing the death of a person or the end, extinction, failure, etc., of something.

   the knell of parting day.

3. any mournful sound.

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verb (used without object)

• knells,
  present (3rd person singular)
• knelled,
  past participle,  past
• knelling
  present participle

1. to sound, as a bell, especially a funeral bell.

2. to give forth a mournful, ominous, or warning sound.

verb (used with object)

• knells,
  present (3rd person singular)
• knelled,
  past participle,  past
• knelling
  present participle

1. to proclaim or summon by, or as if by, a bell.

knell British  

/ nɛl /

noun

1. the sound of a bell rung to announce a death or a funeral

2. something that precipitates or indicates death or destruction

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verb

1. (intr) to ring a knell

2. (tr) to proclaim or announce by or as if by a tolling bell

knell Idioms  

1. see death knell.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unknelled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• knelling
  present
• knelled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• knell
  simple
• knells
  simple
• have knelled
  perfect
• has knelled
  perfect
• am knelling
  progressive
• are knelling
  progressive
• is knelling
  progressive
• have been knelling
  perfect progressive
• has been knelling
  perfect progressive

Past

• knelled
  simple
• had knelled
  perfect
• was knelling
  progressive
• were knelling
  progressive
• had been knelling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will knell
  simple
• will have knelled
  perfect
• will be knelling
  progressive
• will have been knelling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of knell

before 950; (noun) Middle English knel, Old English cynll; (v.) Middle English knellen, knyllen, Old English cynllan; cognate with Old Norse knylla to beat, strike; akin to Dutch knal bang, knallen to bang, German Knall explosion, knallen to explode

Explanation

A knell is a ringing sound, particularly from a bell tolled to announce a death or the end of something. Which is kind of depressing. From the Old English cnyll, meaning “sound made by a bell when struck or rung slowly,” comes our modern day knell. It certainly describes the slow, ominous sound of funeral bells, but isn't always used so literally: We often say that a final blow or action that will bring an end to something sounds or signals the death knell. And if you hear a bell knell in your dreams, look out — superstition says that's not a good sign.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

knell knells knelled knelling

If “Superman” had opened to critical and commercial failure, it would have been a death knell for the modern superhero genre as we know it.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

The move sounds the death knell for the upstart that sowed chaos in professional golf by plowing billions into the sport and poaching A-list players.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

Changing consumer tastes also spelled the death knell for the retailer, which has struggled like many High Street firms.

From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026

People on the internet seem to be taking Lindy West’s memoir as millennial feminism’s final death knell.

From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2026

Then, in the cold voice of an adder, “The bell invites me. Hear it not, Merlin, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell.”

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Time magazine tagged her as one of the death knells of feminism, which seems harsh.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 25, 2017

They worked for him at Modern Photography, Holiday, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country and other publications, most of them gone long before the Internet began sounding its knells for the printed page.

From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2015

Despite the death knells, Luke Donald spent part of the year at No. 1, and after dropping to No. 3, supplanted Woods at No. 2 by December.

From Golf Digest ● Dec. 5, 2012

To the sobbing of the bells; keeping time, time, time, As he knells, knells, knells, in a happy Runic rhyme, 4.

From Assimilative Memory or, How to Attend and Never Forget by A. (Alphonse) Loisette

It was appropriate enough that the last dread year of the fourteenth century should be ushered in by funeral knells.

From The White Rose of Langley A Story of the Olden Time by Emily Sarah Holt

What disaster it was that was thus knelled forth they knew not, and could hardly believe the tidings when given in articulate words.

From Great Britain and Her Queen by Annie E. Keeling

The oak and aspen arms were held Defiant, but the death was knelled Of slender saplings, snappy boughs, Twigs brittle as men's vows.

From Poems New and Old by John Freeman

Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.

From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by John Bartlett

Of all the strange hours of my life it had knelled none more desperate than this!

From The Claw by Cynthia Stockley

All started, as a deep groan knelled in their ears.

From Rookwood by William Harrison Ainsworth

While many of the world's thinkers are worried about the proliferation of births, it is the knelling sound of death that keeps us awake at night.

From Time Magazine Archive

In every traveler's eulogy there is a strain of elegy, and every traveler hearkens to the raven's knelling cry of "Nevermore."

From Time Magazine Archive

The bell was knelling: dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, December 8, 1920 by Sir Owen Seaman

Death throws no darts through all these parts,   No sextons here are knelling; Come, judge and try, you'll never die,   But live at Ballyspellin.

From The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2 by William Ernst Browning

With that sentence knelling in her ears, Elizabeth waited till she heard the short cough and the hard breathing of some one toiling heavily up the stair.

From Mistress and Maid by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik