Knocking

How to spell knocking

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce knocking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does knocking mean?

1. verbStriking a surface repeatedly to make a noise, especially to get attention or gain entry.
2. verbA metallic pinging or thumping sound produced by an engine that is running badly.

Knocking in a sentence

• The loud knocking at the front door woke the whole house.

• The engine started knocking whenever he used cheaper fuel.

• She heard a faint knocking coming from inside the attic.

• A steady knocking from under the bonnet worried the mechanic.

Where does knocking come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the verb 'knock', which goes back to the Old English cnocian, meaning 'to strike' or 'to pound'. That early verb is almost certainly imitative in origin, formed to echo the dull thumping sound it describes, much like 'tap' or 'bang'. The silent k at the front is a fossil of pronunciation: in Old and Middle English the k was actually sounded, so a speaker really did say something close to 'k-nock', but English gradually dropped the spoken k in front of n around the seventeenth century while the spelling stubbornly kept it. The same silent-k pattern survives in relatives such as 'knee', 'knit', and 'knife'. The form 'knocking' simply adds the ordinary -ing ending, and the spelling trap is purely that opening k that the ear no longer hears.

How the word is built

• knock (from Old English cnocian: to strike, rap)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)