knock

The word "knock" is usually a verb. Use this word to describe the sound your hand makes when hitting a door or a window to gain someone’s attention (knock, knock).

• There’s someone knocking on the door.
• I knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
• A police office knocked on the car window to see if the person inside the car was okay.
• You’ll have to knock a little louder (or say "more loudly," which is grammatically correct).

You can also use this word as a noun:

• There was a knock on the door.
• The knock on the door wasn’t loud enough for the people inside to hear it.

If you add "knock" to the preposition "over," you get "knock over" which happens when someone pushes something or another person, intentionally or accidentally:

• Debra knocked over some glasses in the store and they broke.
• Those kids are going to knock something over if they aren’t careful.
• Football players try to knock each other over when they play the American game of football.

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This page was first published on January 4, 2012. It was updated on December 10, 2016.