Alex Inkeles
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Today we give reverence to genuflect, which comes from the Late Latin word genuflectere, formed from the noun genu ("knee") and the verb flectere ("to bend"). Flectere appears in the etymologies of a number of more common verbs, such as reflect ("to bend or throw back light") and deflect ("to turn aside"). By comparison genu has seen little use in English, but it did give us geniculate, a word used in scientific contexts to mean "bent abruptly at an angle like a bent knee." Despite the resemblance, words such as genius and genuine are not related to genuflect; instead, they are related (genius directly, and genuine indirectly) to the Latin verb gignere, meaning "to beget."
Examples of genuflect in a Sentence
Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 14 Apr. 2026
These considerations are paying off as handsomely as genuflecting to government power used to (and often still does).
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026
Greta is so flummoxed by this gorgeous creature standing before her that she's tempted to genuflect and kiss her hand instead of shaking it.
—Danielle Parker, CBS News, 2 Apr. 2026
Theaters are under no obligation to genuflect to the calendar, of course.
—Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 17 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for genuflect
Cite this Entry
“Genuflect.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genuflect. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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genuflect
verb
