eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for knell

2 headwords match “knell”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; cnyll ranks first.

  1. 1

    cnyll

    score 18

    noun, masculine · strong a-stem · 6 inflected forms

    knell — a knell, ring of a bell

    • appears in the definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular cnyll
    genitive singular cnylles
    dative singular cnylle
    accusative singular cnyll
    nominative plural cnyllas
    genitive plural cnylla
  2. 2

    cnyllan

    score 12

    verb · weak class 1 · 17 inflected forms

    knell — to strike, knock, clap (such as a door or bell)

    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    • verb: derivation noise is possible
    Paradigm summary
    first-person singular present indicative cnylle
    first-person singular past indicative cnylde
    second-person singular present indicative cnyllest, cnylst
    second-person singular past indicative cnyldest
    third-person singular present indicative cnylleþ, cnylþ
    third-person singular past indicative cnylde

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “knell” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “knell”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0