kneel
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
kneelsimple
-
kneelssimple
-
have kneeledperfect
-
have kneltperfect
-
has kneeledperfect
-
has kneltperfect
-
am kneelingprogressive
-
are kneelingprogressive
-
is kneelingprogressive
-
have been kneelingperfect progressive
-
has been kneelingperfect progressive
Past
-
kneeledsimple
-
kneltsimple
-
had kneeledperfect
-
had kneltperfect
-
was kneelingprogressive
-
were kneelingprogressive
-
had been kneelingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of kneel
First recorded before 1000; Middle English knelen, Old English cnēowlian (cognate with Low German knelen, Dutch knielen ). See knee, -le
Explanation
When you kneel, you rest your bent knees on the ground. People kneel to pray, to work in the garden, and to do yoga. Kids often kneel on the living room rug to play, and adults kneel to tie a child's shoelaces, to vacuum under the sofa, to play with a puppy, to exercise, and for many other reasons. A great thing about the word kneel is that its meaning is easy to see — the word knee is obvious when you look at it. The Old English root word, cnēowlian, simply means kneel, and it comes from cnēow, or "knee."
Vocabulary lists containing kneel
Unit 1: Telling Details
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"Encounter"
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Words with Two Past-Tense Forms That Creeped (or Crept) into English
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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.
See Examples For:
“We are not going to do what other governments did, which was to go and kneel before organized crime.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
With only 18 seconds left after that game-tying score, the Rams opted to kneel and send the game to overtime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026
"You don’t know whether to stand . . . or kneel."
From Salon ● May 13, 2025
"This Christmas, God's Church itself needs to come again to the manger and strip off her finery and kneel in penitence and adoration. And be changed," he said.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2024
I kneel down and crawl under the desk.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
Seeing all this, a woman kneels and cries out between sobs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026
"He used to fight with me, but he also loved me," 10-year-old Asma says as she kneels at her younger brother's graveside.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
Ricardo García kneels before the towering tree in the middle of town and, like his brothers and father before him, prepares for a journey taking him 100 feet up and 2,500 years into the past.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2023
Yancey kneels in a pasture already eaten down by the cows and grabs a bunch of fescue, showing how it’s been chewed back.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
She kneels beside me and silently mops up the spilled tea with a cloth.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
On Tuesday in Glen Allen, onlookers kneeled and offered fruit, police officers shook the monks' hands, and the monks presented people with blessing threads and other gifts.
From Barron's ● Feb. 3, 2026
South Florida's NBC6 reports the men kneeled, clapped their hands together, and waved their shirts at the passing helicopter.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025
Before chairs with a back and arm rests debuted as a status symbol among ancient Egyptians about 5,000 years ago, he says that humans mostly kneeled or squatted for about 2 million years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2025
In the potato-chip aisle, a woman kneeled on the floor, diligently unpacking boxes, filling the shelves with chips, then reversing the process and repeating it several times over.
From Slate ● Dec. 4, 2024
He turned sad eyes on me, kneeled, and hugged me.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
After her program, she clutched the necklaces on her burgundy lace dress and knelt at center ice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
Protesters, some wearing clerical stoles draped over their shoulders, knelt while singing hymns and reciting the Lord’s Prayer in frigid conditions before being handcuffed and led away, video showed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
She knelt in front of the first officer she saw, told him she’d fled the colectivos, and pleaded for a chance to seek asylum.
From Slate ● Jan. 15, 2026
Twelve fired FBI agents are alleging that they were unlawfully sacked because they knelt during a racial justice protest in Washington DC five years ago.
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025
I knelt at the edge of my bed, hovering over Fig’s gray mass of fur, afraid of what I might find.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Jumoke can be seen kneeling in front of a younger version of her daughter in the desert, telling her: "You must not be afraid."
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Artisan Gianluca Galli was seen kneeling before the mosaic, working to cut new pieces of stone by hand as curious onlookers gathered around him.
From BBC ● May 29, 2026
On Wednesday, Ben Gvir sparked an outcry internationally but also within his own government by publishing a video of dozens of activists kneeling with their foreheads on the ground and their hands tied.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
That same year, he and his deputies were photographed kneeling and speaking with protesters in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, an action he has since recast as praying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
Around the barn in the hen house she found Edward, egg basket still empty, kneeling before the chickens.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
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.
