Hi guys,

Word Of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. (me.)

It’s a fun way to improve one’s vocabulary by learning new words every week.

If you want to participate then simply do a post with your WORD and leave the link to your post as a comment on one of my WOW post.

Here’s this week’s WOW:

Word:

Knell

Part Of Speech:

Noun [in sing.]

Verb [no obj.]

Derivatives:

• Verb: knell
• 3rd person present: knells
• Past tense: knelled
• Past participle: knelled
• Gerund or present participle: knelling

Pronunciation:

• /nɛl/
• nel
• Audio

Meaning:

Meaning 1 for noun:

• a. The sound of a bell, especially when rung solemnly for a death or funeral.
• b. Used in reference to an announcement, event, or sound that warns of the end of something.

Meaning 2 for verb:

• (Of a bell) ring solemnly, especially for a death or funeral.
• Proclaim (something) by or as if by a knell.

Synonyms:

• 1.a. Toll, tolling, ringing, chime, clang, dong, peal, stroke.
• 1.b. End, ill omen, portent, warning.

Antonyms:

–

Phrases/Informal Synonyms:

Beginning of the end, death warrant, presage of the end, death sentence, death knell.

Word Origin:

Old English cnyll (noun), cnyllan (verb), of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch knal(noun), knallen (verb) ‘bang, pop, crack’. The current spelling (dating from the 16th century) is perhaps influenced by bell¹.

Usage Note:

–

Use In Sentences:

• The knell of the ship’s bell.
• Emails and text messages are sounding the knell for the written word
• Everyone took the company president’s resignation as the company’s knell of bankruptcy.

I hope you guys like this word and hope it’s useful to you in some or the other way! If you want to check out more words like this, then visit my page:

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