knotty
Americanadjective
-
a knotty piece of wood.
-
involved, intricate, or difficult.
a knotty problem.
- Synonyms:
- complicated, complex
adjective
-
(of wood, rope, etc) full of or characterized by knots
-
extremely difficult or intricate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of knotty
First recorded in 1200–50, knotty is from the Middle English word cnotti. See knot 1, -y 1
Explanation
Whether it’s pine or problems, sometimes the word knotty can apply to both. Knotty can describe something that has a lot of knots, either literally or figuratively. The adjective knotty is a way to describe something that’s covered in knots. It can be used in a literal sense to refer to wood that is covered in hard, irregular knots — you’ve probably seen these circular, knobby imperfections that sometime appear on wood. The word can also be used figuratively to describe something that is intricate and difficult to solve, such as a knotty political problem involving two warring nations or a knotty legal issue involving complicated constitutional issues.
Vocabulary lists containing knotty
100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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The BFG
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"Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonzales
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The new evacuation zone consists of Orangewood Avenue to the north, Dale Street to the east, Knott Street to the west and Garden Grove Boulevard to the south.
From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2026
Walter and Cordelia Knott had a problem on their hands: Their fried-chicken restaurant was a massive success.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026
“During the last third of the 20th century, Dian Fossey, Biruté Galdikas, Cheryl Knott, Penny Patterson and many more women have followed her. Indeed, women now dominate long-term primate behavioral studies worldwide.”
From Salon • Oct. 1, 2025
Watanabe had initially seen repeated axon pearling in the nervous system of worms and grew more curious about the structures after a discussion with Swiss scientist Graham Knott, Ph.D.
From Science Daily • Dec. 2, 2024
Then I examined Captain Knott again, telling him his wife had been more free and ingenious than him, which made him believe she had told all.
From The Book of Buried Treasure Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc., which are sought for to this day by Paine, Ralph Delahaye
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
