ku·nef·e (ko?o-n?f??) also kna·feh (knä?f?)n. A sweet dish of Middle Eastern origin consisting of a layer of cheese baked between two layers of crispy pastry threads and drizzled with perfumed sugar syrup.[Arabic kun?fa and Turkish künefe (Turkish, from Arabic), from Arabic kanafa, to flank, surround, provide with an enclosure; see knp in Semitic roots.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.