knell

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noun \ ˈnel \

Definition of knell

1 :a stroke or sound of a bell especially when rung slowly (as for a death, funeral, or disaster)

2 :an indication of the end or the failure of something

sounded the death knell for our hopes

See knell defined for English-language learners

Examples of knell in a Sentence

the church bells knelled to mark the death of the nation's beloved leader

Recent Examples of knell from the Web

But for a school that more than nine in 10 students borrow money to attend, the decision had the ring of a death knell.

— shahien nasiripour, Bloomberg.com, "DeVos Offers a Lifeline to For-Profit Law School That Hired Her Former Adviser," 2 Aug. 2017
Last night’s epic collapse of Obamacare repeal on the Senate floor was the death knell for what has been, from the beginning, a highly disorganized and ineffective effort.

— alexandra desanctis, National Review, "Trump Is to Blame for the GOP Health-Care Debacle," 28 July 2017
The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s, which allowed ships to bypass Buffalo on their way to or from the Atlantic Ocean, was the death knell for many of these facilities and in some cases, the businesses that owned them.

— susan glaser, cleveland.com, "Exploring Buffalo's waterfront renaissance; what can Cleveland learn from its Lake Erie neighbor? (photos)," 13 July 2017
Otto’s death will serve as a death knell warning going forward.

— Cincinnati.com, "Ch@troom: Response for Warmbier? Not so fast," 5 July 2017
The bell provided the death knell during every funeral procession in the late 1800s.

— adam ferrise, cleveland.com, "Man shot outside Justice Center in downtown Cleveland," 5 July 2017
Its decline began in the mid-1950s with the birth of the interstate highway system, and the death knell came in 1985 when Route 66 was officially decertified.

— brady macdonald, latimes.com, "A trip on Route 66 proves to be uncharted territory for a master planner," 9 June 2017
The new HomePod speaker may have stolen the show at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, but there was one announcement that could help ring the death knell for something many of us use every day: cash.

— alyssa newcomb, NBC News, "Could Apple’s Next Move Finally Kill the Need to Carry Cash?," 7 June 2017
Does populism coupled with ultra-nationalism spell the death knell of a Western liberal-democratic parenting style, or are appeals to a romanticized past and murmurings of palingenetic reinvigoration just a backlash to attachment parenting?

— zz packer, The New Yorker, "“What to Expect When You’re Expecting Fascism”," 6 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'knell.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.