Knowing
adj, noun, prep, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The act or condition of having knowledge.
"Sensations then, are not perceivings, observings or findings; they are not detectings, scannings or inspectings; they are not apprehendings, cognisings, intuitings or knowings."
- 2 a clear and certain mental apprehension wordnet
- 1 present participle and gerund of know form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 Possessing knowledge or understanding; knowledgeable, intelligent.
"The knowing and intelligent part of the world."
- 2 Deliberate, wilful.
- 3 Shrewd or showing clever awareness; discerning.
"a knowing rascal"
- 4 Demonstrating knowledge of what is in fashion; stylish, chic. archaic
"‘I was a raw boy from College, and fancied it very knowing to marry a girl that all the young fellows of my acquaintance reckoned so confounded handsome.’"
- 5 Suggestive of private knowledge or understanding.
"Jon and Tyrion greet each other with the words that have been used against them as weapons, sharing a knowing smile."
- 1 highly educated; having extensive information or understanding wordnet
- 2 evidencing the possession of inside information wordnet
- 3 alert and fully informed wordnet
- 4 characterized by conscious design or purpose wordnet
- 1 Given my knowledge about someone or something.
"Knowing you, you would try not to be late for school."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Not knowing what to say, he remained silent."
Etymology
From know + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "knowing"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.