Unknown
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A variable (usually x, y or z) whose value is to be found.
- 2 a variable whose values are solutions of an equation wordnet
- 3 Any thing, place, or situation about which nothing is known; an unknown fact or piece of information.
"Had God walked close beside her into the unknown?"
- 4 an unknown and unexplored region wordnet
- 5 A person of no identity; a nonentity.
"How does it feel, / how does it feel? / To be on your own, / with no direction home / A complete unknown, / like a rolling stone"
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- 6 anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found wordnet
- 1 past participle of unknow form-of, participle, past
- 1 Not known; unidentified; not well known. postpositional, sometimes
"The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house."
- 1 being or having an unknown or unnamed source wordnet
- 2 not known before wordnet
- 3 not famous or acclaimed wordnet
- 4 not known wordnet
- 5 not known to exist wordnet
Example
More examples"A known mistake is better than an unknown truth."
Etymology
From Middle English *unknowen, *uniknowen, uniknowe, from Old English unġecnāwen (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + known.
Related phrases
More for "unknown"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.