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knack

[nak]

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noun

a special skill, talent, or aptitude: He had a knack for saying the right thing.

a clever or adroit way of doing something.

a trick or ruse.

a sharp, cracking sound.

Archaic. a knickknack; trinket.

Origin:
1325–75; Middle English: trick; perhaps same word as knak sharp-sounding blow, rap, cracking noise (imitative)

Synonyms
1. aptness, facility, dexterity.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To knack

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Knack is always a great word to know.

So is ort. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

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Example Sentences

Porat has a knack for escaping unscathed from tough situations.

They had, and have, the homegrown stuff of citizens and the knack of a popular movement.

He also has a knack of shaming others into following suit.

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Porat has a knack for escaping unscathed from tough situations.

They had, and have, the homegrown stuff of citizens and the knack of a popular movement.

He also has a knack of shaming others into following suit.

The new digital cameras have an uncanny knack for seeing in the dark.

I, as a woman, had always had a knack for communicating science.

The unskilled, third-world refugee must find within himself a knack for patience.

Call it a knack for seeing the potential in something others have cast away.

Your knack for jigsaw puzzles could revolutionize national defense.

And they have an uncanny knack for honing in on the essence of a report to find the error.

Turns out that the kid actually has a knack for math, and after getting out of the army went on to study theoretical physics.

And for all the chaos he creates around him, he has a knack of getting things done.

Green is a raven-haired beauty with a marvelous knack for gardening.

The market has a knack for making things cost-effective.

She was piling on entomologists with a knack for quickly identifying obscure insects.

She certainly has a knack for articulating our habitat dreams.

They take some finesse to prepare properly so the richness does not overwhelm, but any amateur can get the knack.

Gradually, he accrued seniority, power and a knack for back-room dealmaking.

Badgers of all ages display a knack for finding refreshment.

They are cunning creatures with a knack for keeping their cirri to themselves.

It also gave her a knack for taking household items and making them even more useful.

He had a knack for breaking things-bones and software alike.

The knack for putting together consistently imaginative concert programs is one that only a few conductors ever acquire.

German economists have long had the knack of going their own way.

They had a knack for materializing out of seemingly empty ocean.

Desktop speakers have a knack for looking boxy and boring and sounding so-so.

He has a strong personality, continuity of purpose, a mind well stored and a happy knack of communicating it.

She is a gifted public speaker, with a knack for rousing a crowd.

Albert's got an overprotective mother, a knack for ice fishing, and a brain that works slower than most.

If you have a knack for estimating numbers, your advice can help improve this article.

After he left in the mid-1980s to study literature, his successors had a knack of allowing great strengths to turn into disasters.

Begley has a knack for unpacking hard science into prose that everyone can understand.

The knack is to hedge a position with something that is closely correlated.

Heinlein had a knack for telling a good yarn without overloading it with overly descriptive science or with lengthy exposition.

The author had an uncanny knack of being in the right place at an interesting time.

They have a knack for converting industrial and commercial spaces into highly desirable residential real estate.

Yet many still think his best quality is a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

He's got a real knack for making up aliens and you'll find yourself wanting more when you finish the book.

He has, too, the electorally useful knack of reducing the complex issue to the comprehensible soundbite.

It's as if people had a knack for buying only tickets that paid out more than they cost.

His knack for dominating the centre-ground has been abetted by a self-destructive opposition.

Stubbornly, this part of the world has a knack of rising again.

The new boss also hopes to bring her knack for improving productivity to bear.

Yet he may have a knack of turning failure into success.

Japan has also lost its knack for getting the best out of its human capital.

Imaginative power, broad enthusiasms and a knack for getting things done have all contributed to a career that spans five decades.

They share the same knack for finding ingenious ways to answer unlikely questions, often by plundering forgotten troves of data.

It has a knack of turning on a dime to reinvent itself.

Already some in her coalition grumble that she has lost her knack of winning elections.

If your partner has a strange knack of being able to pick out all the right perfumes, this may not be a good sign at all.

Rorty had a knack for making everything that is difficult in philosophy seem easier, more agreeable, less of a big deal.

Dey had a knack for making complex topics easily understood.

It is a knack that painters who work with colour daily learn to doto break down the component down to subcomponents.

She had a knack for turning strangers into acquaintances and acquaintances into.

Some people have a natural knack and the rest of us get better with practice.

Gardner had a knack for identifying emerging neighborhoods and transforming them into residential magnets.

Perhaps it was all this that gave him the knack of seeing the world from another point of view.

It's a great spot and wandering around the little knick knack and ice cream shops nearby is fun too.

Darpa is awarding small, short-term contracts to those who have a knack for discovering holes in network defenses.

Her knack for friendship, keen mind and sense of fun will.

She has a knack for putting herself into other people's shoes with empathy and skill.

Akerson has a knack for parachuting in, surveying the landscape and making changes.

The naming of the new skylights suggests that the automakers' knack for labeling their products remains strong.

But it's hard to argue with his track record, and those who know him say he has knack for seeing where a market will eventually.

His dry wit and knack for telling funny stories helped us take ourselves a little less seriously.

These early people had a knack where sensuality resides.

He has a disconcerting knack of undercutting his own arguments.

Its professors had a knack for distilling complex notions into easy-to-digest sound bites.

Williams showed a knack for dialogue, and at times he and his collaborator do so now.

Actually swapping out the optics is a knack gained after a few tries.

And that she seems to have a knack for sashaying across the screen with her clothes off nearly as much as she does with them on.

Researchers are making little progress developing computers with any knack for reasoning.

Today, parents often are urged to capitalize on that early knack for acquiring language.

But he had the unhappy knack of making enemies in the party.

Metcalfe also brings a knack for not making too many enemies along the way.

As a teenager, he displayed a knack for making things happen.

Like all canny entrepreneurs, drug dealers have a knack for branding their goods with evocative names.

Gambling firms also have a knack for carving out new markets.

The author has a knack for befriending interesting people and tracking down important ones.

No wonder many consumers seem to be developing the knack of tuning-out adverts.

Your talent obviously has a knack of flaring emotions in your readers.

They have a knack of being in your blind spot all the time.

History has a knack of lifting the veil of ignorance, and prattle.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

knack (næk)

—n
1.	a skilful, ingenious, or resourceful way of doing something
2.	a particular talent or aptitude, esp an intuitive one

[C14: probably variant of knak sharp knock, rap, of imitative origin]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

knack

mid-14c., "deception, trick, device," of uncertain origin, probably from a Low Ger. word meaning "a sharp sounding blow" (cf. M.E. knak, late 14c.; Ger. knacken "to crack"), of imitative origin. Sense of "special skill" is first recorded 1580s, if this is in fact the same word.

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Related Words

knickknack trick

trick

Matching Quote

"Among the multitude of scholars and authors, we feel no hallowing presence; we are sensible of a knack and skill rather than of inspiration; they have a light, and know not whence it comes, and call it their own; their talent is some exaggerated faculty, some overgrown member, so that their strength is a disease."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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