Know-nothingness
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The state of knowing nothing; ignorance. uncountable
"Anxious, as if I knew even then in my infant know-nothingness that my life would be torn apart by people who I'm sure meant nothing by it but were instead pursuing their own lives and their own hearts and dreams and beliefs and aspirations and horizons, much like I would and am, yet somehow I am tossed from this family of mine because I chose to do what my heart suggested and yearned for, for which a reason there is no better."
- 2 A perverse admiration or embrace of ignorance. uncountable
"There was a growing spirit of "Know-nothingness" and avoidance of foreign things in the town and the German community was, at the same time, growing stronger in its determination to protect its own rights."
Example
More examples"Anxious, as if I knew even then in my infant know-nothingness that my life would be torn apart by people who I'm sure meant nothing by it but were instead pursuing their own lives and their own hearts and dreams and beliefs and aspirations and horizons, much like I would and am, yet somehow I am tossed from this family of mine because I chose to do what my heart suggested and yearned for, for which a reason there is no better."
Etymology
From know-nothing + -ness.
More for "know-nothingness"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.