American English pronunciation

How to pronounce knots

IPA transcription: ['nɑts]

Hear “knots” pronounced

['nɑts]

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['nɑts]

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['nɑts]

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Noun

  • a unit of length used in navigation; exactly 1,852 meters; historically based on the distance spanned by one minute of arc in latitude

  • a tight cluster of people or things

    “a small knot of women listened to his sermon”

    “the bird had a knot of feathers forming a crest”

  • any of various fastenings formed by looping and tying a rope (or cord) upon itself or to another rope or to another object

  • a hard cross-grained round piece of wood in a board where a branch emerged

    “the saw buckled when it hit a knot”

  • something twisted and tight and swollen

    “their muscles stood out in knots”

    “the old man's fists were two great gnarls”

    “his stomach was in knots”

  • soft lump or unevenness in a yarn; either an imperfection or created by design

  • a sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the southern hemisphere

Verb

  • make into knots; make knots out of

    “She knotted her fingers”

  • tie or fasten into a knot

    “knot the shoelaces”

  • tangle or complicate

    “a ravelled story”

Usage examples

  • We are travelling at fifteen knots.
  • British cadet under officers wear Austrian knots as part of their rank insignia.
  • Another way is to drop ropes full of knots.
  • Structural studies find this planetary exhibits knots characterized by well developed symmetry.
  • The knots had been cunningly tied.
  • The knots had been cunningly tied.
  • However, the resulting rope is cumbersome and difficult to tie knots in.
  • Knots with symmetries are known to have restricted Alexander polynomials.
  • Elsewhere", "Knots Landing" and "John from Cincinnati".
  • Viktor Vassiliev and Mikhail Goussarov started the theory of finite type invariants of knots.