How to Use knife-edge in a Sentence

knife-edge

noun
  • Or, to put that another way, are Newcastle on a knife-edge?
    — George Caulkin, New York Times, 10 Aug. 2025
  • It’s made from washable cotton for easy cleaning, and has a crisp knife-edge finish for an even sleeker look.
    — Michelle Baricevic, PEOPLE, 9 June 2026
  • The writing dances on a knife-edge as religious piety and saintly delusion rub elbows.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Here, the cliffs were covered in vegetation, with knife-edge spurs and basalt towers that soared into the dark clouds above.
    — Peter Heller, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 Jan. 2024
  • In simple terms though, as long as the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, markets remain on a knife-edge.
    — Jim Edwards, Fortune, 11 May 2026
  • Several sections require threading knife-edge ridges blasted by high winds.
    — Nick Heil, Outside, 15 Jan. 2016
  • That knife-edge divide — dry pavement on one side, a downpour on the other — is what made Ford’s footage so startling.
    — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The 8 billion-year-old sun will push Earth to a similar, climatic knife-edge.
    — Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2025
  • The game swung on these knife-edge moments, but the actual performance levels were similar from both teams.
    — Mark Carey, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2026
  • That scene, where Cain and Derek go conversationally toe-to-toe, is one of the film’s sharpest knife-edge moments.
    — Craig McLean, Variety, 4 Dec. 2025
  • The movie tries to pick up the threads of previous films, but, in attempting to make Myers more mystical, this film robs him of his knife-edge menace.
    — Chris Snellgrove, Entertainment Weekly, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Even for athletes who’ve spent a lifetime climbing mountains, traversing sheer cliffs, balancing on knife-edge ridgelines, this fear never disappears.
    — Outside Online, 5 Nov. 2025
  • His premiership seemingly rests on a knife-edge after a day of intrigue of the kind that British politics seems to have perfected in recent years.
    — Katie Foley, CNBC, 12 May 2026
  • Even that path, however, requires Bayern to edge past Manchester City in a knife-edge quarter-final.
    — Conor O'Neill, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2026
  • After a long and gruelling season of almost perpetual tension, another 90 minutes on the knife-edge await.
    — Tom Williams, New York Times, 17 May 2026
  • Tottenham Hotspur go to Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend with their season and future on a knife-edge.
    — Elias Burke, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Two warriors gleam in the midst of Indian Combat (1868) and continue their brawl to the death, one knife-edge away from mortality.
    — Tyehimba Jess, ARTnews.com, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Its thin exosphere offers almost no protection from solar radiation, making this twilight boundary a literal knife-edge of danger.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 13 Nov. 2025
  • But the battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris remains on a knife-edge and the pressure will only increase from here.
    — Alex Kalinauckas, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2025
  • This is probably mostly right—studios’ appetite for risk keeps shrinking, sequels and reboots are favored over original films, and the days of out-of-control productions dancing on the knife-edge of catastrophe may well be behind us.
    — Michael O’Donnell, The Atlantic, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Vintage variation shifts my preferences, but the combination of knife-edge acidity, tropical fruit, and herbal complexity makes these worthy additions to the cellar.
    — Paul Caputo, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
  • Hansen, the University of Chicago political scientist, said the Republican caucus has held up well over the last year, considering its knife-edge majority.
    — Daniel C. Vock, Chicago Tribune, 13 Feb. 2026
  • The match-ups between PSG and Bayern and Arsenal and Atletico are so evenly balanced — bringing together teams with similar tactical outlooks — that both will be on a knife-edge throughout.
    — Phil Hay, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Serbia travels to England, sat third in UEFA qualifying Group K, one point behind Albania, and with its qualification chances balanced on a knife-edge.
    — Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'knife-edge.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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