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

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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

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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

Some see it as a death knell for solar tiles; others, as an opportunity.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

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

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

From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2026

Now, many are wondering: Is the death knell finally tolling for the Cuban Revolution?

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 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

With trembling step, to join yon weeping train, I haste, where gleams funereal glare around, And, mixed with shrieks of woe, the knells of death resound.

From The Minstrel; or the Progress of Genius with some other poems by James Beattie

How many books, how many graves, knells and fevers, how many messages and signs, have ye seen? 

From The Visions of the Sleeping Bard by Robert Gwyneddon Davies

As I stood there in the pulpit, busying me to teach the commandment of GOD, there knelled a sacring-bell; and therefore mickle people turned away hastily, and with great noise ran from towards me.

From Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse by Various

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

From Rookwood by William Harrison Ainsworth

The typical, significant sound knelled to her heart.

From Sir George Tressady — Volume II by Mrs. Humphry Ward

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

From The Claw by Cynthia Stockley

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

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

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

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

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

The stillness became intolerable; yet more intolerable the sound that alone broke it, the voice of the clock, knelling moment after moment to its grave.

From Zanoni by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton

O, very gloomy is the House of Woe, Where tears are falling while the bell is knelling, With all the dark solemnities which show That Death is in the dwelling!

From The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood by Thomas Hood

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