Knife-edge

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A piece of steel sharpened to an acute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as the axis of motion of a pendulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction.
  2. 2
    a narrow boundary wordnet
  3. 3
    A precarious balance that could be upset by a very small force in either direction. figuratively

    "The game was on a knife-edge."

  4. 4
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: the edge of a knife.

Synonyms

All synonyms
edgeedge toolfeatheredgerazor's edgeweapon

Example

More examples

"[…]meanwhile, Biloxi and Vincennes are both in the process of going down and being abandoned, whilst Miami is right on the knife-edge of being recoverable, with three destroyers clustering around offering pumping and additional damage-control crews to try and keep the light cruiser afloat."

Related phrases

knife-edge effectknife-edge file

More for "knife-edge"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.