Knud Knudsen (January 6, 1812 – March 30, 1895) was a Norwegian educator, author, linguist and philologist, known as "The Father of Bokmål".

He was first adjunct professor in Drammen until 1846, when he was appointed headmaster at the Christiania Cathedral School, a position he held until 1880.

[2] Knudsen became involved in the development of the national debate which resulted in the Riksmål (later Bokmål) and Landsmål (later Nynorsk) forms of the written Norwegian language.

He wanted changes that could occur in the shortest time possible and consequently put forward several reforms working within the Danish written language.

The most comprehensive treatment of the subject may be found in his Unorsk og norsk, eller Fremmedords avlösning (1879–1881).