Word.ws English Dictionary

knowing

UK/ˈnəʊɪŋ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/naːɪn/

knowing adjective: possessing knowledge or understanding; knowledgeable, intelligent. Also the present participle and gerund of know.

Adjective

knowing (comparative more knowing, superlative most knowing)

  1. Possessing knowledge or understanding; knowledgeable, intelligent.
    • The knowing and intelligent part of the world.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
  2. Deliberate, wilful.
  3. Shrewd or showing clever awareness; discerning.
    • a knowing rascal
  4. (archaic) Demonstrating knowledge of what is in fashion; stylish, chic.
    • ‘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.’1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 173
    • Tom thought his cap a very knowing affair, but confessed that he had a hat in his hat-box; which was accordingly at once extracted from the hind-boot, and Tom equipped in his go-to-meeting roof, as his new friend called it.1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days
  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.2017 July 30, Ali Barthwell, “Ice and fire finally meet in a front-loaded episode of Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club
    • As family entertainment, it’s all perfectly fine. There are plenty of callbacks to the original to delight young fans (including a catchy new song from Shakira’s Gazelle) and plenty of knowing jokes for the adults in the audience.2025 November 25, Caroline Siede, “Zootopia 2 is a stagnant sequel with one stellar subplot”, in AV Club

Preposition

knowing

  1. Given my knowledge about someone or something.
    • Knowing you, you would try not to be late for school.

Noun

knowing (plural knowings)

  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.2009, Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (60th Anniversary Edition, 1949, page 194)

Also used as

knowing is also the present participle and gerund of know.

knowing meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Gujarati

knowing in Tamil

தெரிந்துகொள்ளுதல்

knowing in Telugu

తెలుసుకోవడం, తెలుసుకోవటం

knowing in Kannada

ತಿಳಿಯುವುದು

knowing in Gujarati

જાણવું, જાણીને

Examples of knowing in a sentence

  • I took a long look at the house, knowing it was for the last time.
  • She had no way of knowing, nor did we, that he’d done it.
  • Looking at me with a knowing glare, she blushed her discomfort with the situation.

All 40 example sentences with knowing

Synonyms of knowing

Forms of knowing

Adjective
comparativemore knowing
superlativemost knowing
Noun
pluralknowings

Origin of knowing

From know + -ing.

Words formed from knowing

Phrases with knowing

51 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with knowing

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about knowing

What does knowing mean?
Knowing means possessing knowledge or understanding; knowledgeable, intelligent.
What is knowing in Tamil?
Knowing in Tamil is தெரிந்துகொள்ளுதல். See Knowing meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is knowing?
Knowing can be an adjective, a preposition or a noun.
How do you pronounce knowing?
Knowing is pronounced /ˈnəʊɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near knowing in the dictionary

  1. knowfulness
  2. knowhatimean
  3. knowhow
  4. knowhows
  5. knowin'
  6. knowing
  7. knowing a B from a battledore
  8. knowing A from B
  9. knowing about
  10. knowing any better
  11. knowing B from a battledore

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knowing (page history and authors); knowing (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); knowing (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); knowing (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); knowing (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-knowing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “knowing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/knowing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.