genuflection

American  

[jen-yoo-flek-shuhn] / ˌdʒɛn jʊˈflɛk ʃən /

especially British, genuflexion

noun

1. an act of bending the knee or touching it to the ground in reverence or worship.

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Etymology

Origin of genuflection

First recorded in 1520–30, genuflection is from the Medieval Latin word genūflexiōn- (stem of genūflexiō ). See genuflect, -ion

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

genuflection

To her left, Melvin Gibbs played electric bass—sometimes nonchalantly, sometimes with one bent knee, as if in genuflection.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

At earlier hearings, university presidents opted for strategies of conciliatory genuflection or drab, lawyerly answers.

From New York Times ● May 9, 2024

“It’s only a movie, and … a much less impressive one than all the accompanying genuflection would have you believe.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2024

But Adam didn’t do rhyme and meter, for one thing — too much like mandatory genuflection in church, he once remarked.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 23, 2023

The parrot went on bowing, making a short pause between each genuflection, as if it waited for a signal to be given that called into play its imitative faculty.

From Tongues of Conscience by Hichens, Robert Smythe