West Knighton is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of the county town Dorchester.

In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 375.

[1] The village name derives from the Old English cniht and tūn, meaning the village or farmstead of the young men or retainers.

[2] At Little Mayne Farm 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southwest of the village is the site of a deserted medieval village, which was recorded in the Domesday Book as Maine[3] and in 1201 was known as Parva Maene.

[4] West Knighton parish historically developed out of the amalgamation of four medieval settlements within the ancient hundred of Cullifordtree:[5] the existing main village, the previously mentioned Parva Maene, another medieval settlement at Friarmayne to the south—also deserted and now within neighbouring Broadmayne civil parish[6]—and the fourth at Lewell to the north (now just a farmhouse).