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FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

canif.

clasp-knife, penknife

5 characters2 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

noun/ka.nif/
  1. clasp-knife, penknife

    masculine
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French quenif, from Middle English knyf (“knife”), from Old English cnīf (“knife”) (however also derived from Late Vulgar Latin *cnifus, if not reinforced), from Old Norse kníf or Proto-West Germanic *knīb, from Proto-Germanic *knībaz (“knife”). Akin to Old French cnivet, canivet (“little knife”), Catalan ganivet (“knife”), from Frankish *knīf (“knife”), from the same Germanic source. More at knife.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.