knighted
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: verb/1
All four verbs describe formally raising someone's status, but the level and ceremony differ. 'Honoured' is the most general — you can be honoured with any award, from a school certificate to a national medal. 'Knighted' is specific: the monarch grants the rank of knight, and the recipient gains the title 'Sir' or 'Dame'. 'Ennobled' covers a wider range of noble ranks above knight, such as baron or earl, and is heard mostly in historical or formal writing. 'Dubbed' is the literary or ceremonial verb — it refers to the actual act of tapping the new knight's shoulder with a sword. So a journalist might write 'Sir Tendai was knighted yesterday', a historian might write 'the king dubbed him on the field after the battle', and a peerage record might say 'he was ennobled as a baron in 1820'.
Common collocations
Phrases
- be knighted by
- knighted for services to
- newly knighted
- recently knighted
Prepositions
- by (the monarch)
- for (services / achievement)
- in (year)
Etymology
Formed from the Old English noun 'cniht', which originally meant 'boy', 'youth', or 'household servant', and later 'military follower' or 'soldier on horseback' as feudal armies became central to medieval warfare. The honorary social meaning — a man raised to noble rank by a king — developed in the late Middle English period as the actual military knighthood faded and the title became a ceremonial honour. The verb 'to knight' and its past participle 'knighted' appeared once the ceremony of dubbing became established, and the spelling settled into its modern silent-k form by the 17th century.