knot

¹ American  

[not] / nɒt /

noun

1. an interlacing, twining, looping, etc., of a cord, rope, or the like, drawn tight into a knob or lump, for fastening, binding, or connecting two cords together or a cord to something else.

2. a piece of ribbon or similar material tied or folded upon itself and used or worn as an ornament.

3. a group or cluster of persons or things.

   a knot of spectators.

   Synonyms:

   crowd, gang, crew, band, company

4. the hard, cross-grained mass of wood at the place where a branch joins the trunk of a tree.

5. a part of this mass showing in a piece of lumber, wood panel, etc.

6. Anatomy, Zoology. a protuberance or swelling on or in a part or process, as in a muscle.

7. a protuberance in the tissue of a plant; an excrescence on a stem, branch, or root; a node or joint in a stem, especially when of swollen form.

   Synonyms:

   gnarl, knob, lump

8. any of various fungal diseases of trees characterized by the formation of an excrescence, knob, or gnarl.

9. an involved, intricate, or difficult matter; complicated problem.

   Synonyms:

   conundrum, puzzle, perplexity

10. Nautical.

    1. a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile or about 1.15 statute miles per hour.

    2. a unit of 47 feet 3 inches (13.79 meters) on a logline, marked off by knots.

    3. a nautical mile.

11. a bond or tie.

    the knot of matrimony.

12. Also called joint, node.  Mathematics. in interpolation, one of the points at which the values of a function are assigned.

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verb (used with object)

knots, present (3rd person singular) knotted, past participle, past knotting present participle

1. to tie in a knot; form a knot in.

2. to secure or fasten by a knot.

3. to form protuberances, bosses, or knobs in; make knotty.

verb (used without object)

knots, present (3rd person singular) knotted, past participle, past knotting present participle

1. to become tied or tangled in a knot.

2. to form knots or joints.

idioms

1. tie the knot, to marry.

   They will tie the knot in November.

knot ² American  

[not] / nɒt /

noun

1. either of two large sandpipers, Calidris canutus or C. tenuirostris, that breed in the Arctic and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

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knot ¹ British  

/ nɒt /

noun

1. any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a piece of rope, cord, etc, in upon itself, to another piece of rope, or to another object

2. a prescribed method of tying a particular knot

3. a tangle, as in hair or string

4. a decorative bow or fastening, as of ribbon or braid

5. a small cluster or huddled group

6. a tie or bond

   the marriage knot

7. a difficult problem

8. a protuberance or lump of plant tissues, such as that occurring on the trunks of certain trees

9. 1. a hard mass of wood at the point where a branch joins the trunk of a tree

   2. a cross section of this, usually roundish and cross-grained, visible in a piece of timber

10. a sensation of constriction, caused by tension or nervousness

    his stomach was tying itself in knots

11. 1. pathol a lump of vessels or fibres formed in a part, as in a muscle

    2. anatomy a protuberance on an organ or part

12. a unit of speed used by nautical vessels and aircraft, being one nautical mile (about 1.15 statute miles or 1.85 km) per hour

13. one of a number of equally spaced knots on a log line used to indicate the speed of a ship in nautical miles per hour

14. very fast

15. to completely perplex or confuse someone

16. informal to get married

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verb

1. (tr) to tie or fasten in a knot

2. to form or cause to form into a knot

3. (tr) to ravel or entangle or become ravelled or entangled

4. (tr) to make (an article or a design) by tying thread in an interlaced pattern of ornamental knots, as in macramé

knot ² British  

/ nɒt /

noun

1. a small northern sandpiper, Calidris canutus, with a short bill and grey plumage

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knot More Idioms  

1. see tie into knots; tie the knot.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• knotter
  noun
• knotless
  adjective
• knotlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• knotting
  present
• knotted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• knot
  simple
• knots
  simple
• have knotted
  perfect
• has knotted
  perfect
• am knotting
  progressive
• are knotting
  progressive
• is knotting
  progressive
• have been knotting
  perfect progressive
• has been knotting
  perfect progressive

Past

• knotted
  simple
• had knotted
  perfect
• was knotting
  progressive
• were knotting
  progressive
• had been knotting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will knot
  simple
• will have knotted
  perfect
• will be knotting
  progressive
• will have been knotting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of knot¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun knot(t)e, cnotte, cnot(e), Old English cnotta; cognate with Dutch knot, German knoten “to knit ”; the verb is derivative of the noun

Origin of knot²

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English; origin unknown

Explanation

A knot is a securely fastened loop of string, rope, or fabric. Before kids learn to tie their shoelaces, they first have to learn to tie a simple knot. If someone asks you to "tie the knot," give it some thought since they are asking you to get married. Sailors need to know how to make many different rope knots, and doctors learn to tie knots with the thin sutures they use to stitch wounds closed. You can also talk about a group or tight gathering of people as a knot: "A knot of fans formed around the movie star as she walked down the street." When you knot something, you tie it into knots or make a situation more complicated and snarled.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

knot knots knotted knotting

This chimes with some of the women at the temple, who say they have been seeing more and more social media posts of friends tying the knot and having babies.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

Qualley and Antonoff tied the knot in August 2023, a little over a year after they got engaged in May 2022.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Blazy has barely put a foot wrong, and designed the wedding dress of British singer Dua Lipa when she tied the knot with actor Callum Turner in Sicily earlier this month.

From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026

The couple tied the knot in 2016, just one year after they met at the Las Vegas Country Saloon, where Jelly Roll was performing as the opening act for the Moonshine Bandits.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 4, 2026

I tuck my hair tightly beneath Willa’s scarf and tie a knot beneath my chin.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Gignac, who sells other city trash on his website, said he tied some of the items into knots to "hammer home the wedding theme."

From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026

The boats are made of aluminum, whose light weight helps them move swiftly to a target speed of about 14 knots, which is about 16 miles per hour, said one of Vela’s founders, Michaël Fernandez-Ferri.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

But many others twist themselves into knots attempting to explain why sweaty guys punching each other are a core component of the American Way.

From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026

My Domino’s order is a small pepperoni, pineapple, olives and sausage slice ... hand tossed, cheesed up, and then I will get a side of garlic knots and a side of buffalo wings with ranch.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026

So when they knew how many seconds it took for the ship to go that many feet, they could figure out how many knots it was making.

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

This Safavid-era carpet created for an ancestral shrine in northwest Iran was gifted by J. Paul Getty and is prized for its ornately knotted design featuring lamps and central medallions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026

Brunson's layup -- after teammate Jose Alvarado's second steal in 20 seconds -- knotted it at 103-103 with 1:26 remaining and Brunson put the Knicks up for good, 105-103, with 29 seconds left.

From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026

Any irregular signal was thought to mean the strand had knotted as it moved through the pore.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 9, 2026

Lukas Nelson: I was exercising a lot, and it was in my face all the time, getting all knotted up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025

Regan was the only one who didn’t look nervous, but I’d been her partner long enough now to know that was a very convincing front and her insides were just as knotted as my own.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

We host volunteers for dinner and knotting comforters for refugees many Monday evenings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026

After the Hornets erased a three-point half-time deficit, knotting the score at 57-57, the Thunder unleashed a 16-1 scoring run to seize a 15-point lead.

From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025

Moments before his arrest in March, with hundreds of police on his doorstep, Mayor Imamoglu calmly carried on knotting his tie, while making a social media video for his supporters.

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2025

They did it again the seventh, knotting the score at 4-4 on Hernández’s pinch-hit home run.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2024

What does this idea—say, the knotting of braids—have in common with that one in some other seemingly disparate area—say, the symmetries of some geometric figure?

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Related Words

• clump
• cluster
• mob
• swarm