Trivia Time

Which poet wrote, "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day"?

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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

Is this the death knell of American political satire?

From Salon ● May 19, 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

It marks the death knell of the post–World War II settlement that, however imperfect, wrestled the anarchy of war into a framework designed to condition armed aggression on legal justification.

From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2026

It announced, Ms. Newman writes, the “death knell to any remaining attachment to the inherited ideals of the Greek notion of beauty.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025

Consequently, we do not have to wait until the publication of Geoffroy’s table in 1718 to hear the death knell of alchemy.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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

The fire is loose! and frantic knells     Throb fast and faster, As tower to tower confusedly tells     News of disaster.

From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell by James Russell Lowell

Death-like knells around are flinging, In the wild, terrific gale.

From Poems With a Sketch of the Life and Experience of Annie R. Smith by Rebekah Smith

To-morrow—” He fell silent; again in his heart that parting cadence knelled with keen and intolerable sorrow.

From Stepsons of Light by Eugene Manlove Rhodes

I cannot guess nor tell; only it comes and comes, As from a vaster world beyond my door, From centuries of eld, the death of freedom knelled, A host of mortal fears at my door.

From Behind the Arras A Book of the Unseen by Thomas Buford Meteyard

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 wind howled around me—I felt impatient and benumbed—and, as I stood irresolute, with a moaning chime the church bell knelled upon my ear.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 4 by Various

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

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

As she was walking o'er the fields, She heard the dead-bell knelling; And every jow the dead-bell gave, It cried, "Woe to Barbara Allen!"

From The Book of Old English Ballads by Hamilton Wright Mabie

Not to be was that manhood!—The death-bell is knelling, The hinge of the death-vault creaks harsh on the ears— How dismal, O Death, is the place of thy dwelling!

From The Poems of Schiller — First period by Friedrich Schiller

And ever still, its knelling Crashes in upon my dreams.

From The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar by William Dean Howells