know — English Dictionary

know
Word-form referencesknowe
Pronunciations (11)
  • /nəʊ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /no/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Scotland
  • /nou/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Wales
  • /naː/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Northumbria
  • /noʊ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • General-American
  • /nəʉ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Australia
  • /noʊ/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Singapore
  • [noː˨˦]
    Pronunciation notes
    • Singapore
  • [ˈno(˧˨)]
    Pronunciation notes
    • Singapore
    • emphatic
  • nəʊ
    Pronunciation notes
    • GB
  • noʊ
    Pronunciation notes
    • US

Verb

  1. To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    I know where the station is.

    Question things. I have the most fun when I'm writing questioning things that people do not question- the assumptions that everybody knows are true.

    '[…] I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.' 'Thank you, sir.' Did he hell. They never bloody did.

    More examples (2)

    I know that I’m right and you’re wrong.

    He knew something terrible was going to happen.

  2. To be or become aware or cognizant.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.

    Malware's sometimes been known to sit dormant for a long time.

    More examples (1)

    ‘A Gentleman!’ quoth the Squire, ‘who the Devil can he be? Do, Doctor, go down and ſee who ’tis. Mr. Blifil can hardly be come to town yet.—Go down, do, and know what his Buſineſs is.[’]

  3. To be aware of; to be cognizant of.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.

    She knows where I live.

    More examples (3)

    I knew he was upset, but I didn't understand why.

    I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

    Discovered in 2015, the planet known as K2-18b is twice the size of Earth with eight times the mass. While it is thought to be rocky, no one knows if water’s flowing on the surface.

  4. To be acquainted (with another person).

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • Obsolete
    Examples

    You, and I haue knowne ſir.

  5. To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    I know your mother, but I've never met your father.

    Borja, do you know Pilar? - Sure, we've actually met before.

    More examples (3)

    I got to know her during the pandemic, so we've known each other for years now.

    I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I shall have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I had left New York for the West.

    Marsha is my roommate. — I know Marsha. She is nice.

  6. To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered. To have sexual relations with. This meaning normally specified in modern English as e.g. to ‘know someone in the biblical sense’ or to ‘know biblically’.

    Usage
    • Archaic
    • euphemistic
    • Transitive
    Examples

    AFterwarde the man knewe Heuáh his wife, which cõceiued & bare Káin, & ſaid, I haue obteined a man by yͤ Lord.

    More examples (1)

    Now Gerald had never thought of her having a mother. Then there must have been a father, too, some time. And Miss Wilmarth existed because two people once had loved and known. It was not a thought to dwell upon.

    Wait a second. Are you… attempting to know me?

  7. To experience.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Their relationship knew ups and downs.

    The Truman family knew good times and bad,[…].

  8. To understand or have a grasp of through experience or study.

    Examples

    Let me do it. I know how it works.

    She knows how to swim.

    More examples (4)

    His mother tongue is Italian, but he also knows French and English.

    She knows chemistry better than anybody else.

    Know your enemy and know yourself.

    The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.

  9. To be able to distinguish, to discern, particularly by contrast or comparison; to recognize the nature of.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    to know a person's face or figure

    to know right from wrong

    More examples (4)

    I wouldn't know one from the other.

    Ye ſhall knowe them by their frutes.

    The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

    Flares do not know friend from foe and so illuminate both. Changes in wind direction can result in flare exposure of the attacker while defenders hide in the shadows.

  10. To recognize as the same (as someone or something previously encountered) after an absence or change.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    At nearer view he thought he knew the dead, / And call'd the wretched man to mind.

    Ernest also is so much improved, that you would hardly know him:[…].

  11. To have knowledge; to have information, be informed.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    It is vital that he not know.

    She knew of our plan.

    More examples (4)

    He knows about 19th century politics.

    “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

    Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.

    Marsha knows.

  12. To be able to play or perform (a song or other piece of music).

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Do you know "Blueberry Hill"?

  13. To have indexed and have information about within one's database.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Mmm... Seems you searched for a name that we don't know, we'll send our trained monkeys to check what's in stock.

  14. To maintain (a belief, a position) subject to a given philosophical definition of knowledge; to hold a justified true belief.

    Usage
    • Transitive

Noun

  1. Knowledge; the state of knowing.

    Usage
    • Rare
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    That on the view and know of theſe Contents, […] He ſhould the bearers put to […] death, […]

  2. Knowledge; the state of knowing. (Now confined to the fixed phrase in the know.)

    Usage
    • Uncountable

Particle

  1. Used at the end of a sentence to draw attention to information one thinks the listener should keep in mind.

    Usage
    • Singlish
    Related words
    whatlah1–14lor2–3lor1ah6leh1–2mahleh3–6one1–3hor1niaonlysiahor2ah1–3hah1–3mehba2leh7–11ba1liaoalreadyGuptaA. F. (1992)involume 18number 1→DOI
    Examples

    Make sure you water the plants, know…

    I was a naval diver know!

    More examples (2)

    Are you sure they’re gonna give you someting more kilat? I think ah, they put you here to hentak kaki, know!

    Ah Chye (Charlie Goh): Eh hello, this is my territory know? Ang Bock Huat (Tristan Goh): Your territory? You think Scorpion very strong is it?

Noun

  1. the fact of being aware of information that is known to few people

    Broader terms
    Examples

    he is always in the know

Verb

  1. be cognizant or aware of a fact or a specific piece of information; possess knowledge or information about

    Examples

    I know that the President lied to the people

    I want to know who is winning the game!

    More examples (1)

    I know it's time

  2. know how to do or perform something

    Broader terms
    Examples

    She knows how to knit

    Does your husband know how to cook?

  3. be familiar or acquainted with a person or an object

    Broader terms
    Examples

    She doesn't know this composer

    Do you know my sister?

    More examples (3)

    We know this movie

    I know him under a different name

    This flower is known as a Peruvian Lily

  4. have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations

    Examples

    I know the feeling!

    have you ever known hunger?

    More examples (3)

    I have lived a kind of hell when I was a drug addict

    The holocaust survivors have lived a nightmare

    I lived through two divorces

  5. accept (someone) to be what is claimed or accept their power and authority

    Broader terms
    Examples

    The Crown Prince was acknowledged as the true heir to the throne

    We do not recognize your gods

  6. have fixed in the mind

    Broader terms
    Examples

    I know Latin

    This student knows her irregular verbs

    More examples (1)

    Do you know the poem well enough to recite it?

  7. have sexual intercourse with

    Examples

    Adam knew Eve

    Were you ever intimate with this man?

  8. know the nature or character of

    Examples

    we all knew her as a big show-off

  9. be able to distinguish, recognize as being different

    Examples

    The child knows right from wrong

  10. perceive as familiar

    Examples

    I know this voice!

Word forms
knowsknowingknewknowedknownknewknewknowestknewknewestknowethknewknewknewknaaknowe

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