Kneel

The verb 'to kneel' means 'to bend the legs so that your weight is supported on your knees. It is a position that implies respect (some Christians kneel to say their prayers to God), or submission (to kneel down before an enemy used to imply - and still does, figuratively - surrender). Kneel is pronounce dwith the same vowel as knee: that is to say, like 'see', 'tea' or 'bee' (IPA: /niːl/. It is a homophone of the forename 'Neil' and the surnames 'Neil', 'Neill' and 'Neal(e). The past forms, in British RP, have the vowel of 'sell' and 'tell': IPA: /nɛlt/ .

'To kneel' is an irregular verb. Its forms are given here:

Base form	past tense	-ed participle	Remarks
kneel	knelt or kneeled	knelt or kneeled	kneeled is esp American English

This is one of the "the 250 or so irregular verbs" listed in Quirk 1985. The list "contains most of the irregular verbs in present-day English ... but is not meant to be exhaustive, particularly with regard to derivative verbs." AWE has copied most of the entries in that list. The verb 'to kneel' belongs to Quirk's Class 3 A