Word.ws English Dictionary

knowing how many beans make five

knowing how many beans make five is the present participle and gerund of know how many beans make five.

Meaning of know how many beans make five

Verb

know how many beans make five (third-person singular simple present knows how many beans make five, present participle knowing how many beans make five, simple past knew how many beans make five, past participle known how many beans make five)

  1. (idiomatic) To be knowledgeable about how the world works; to have common sense and judgement.
    • They got the best prices, and he could assure the House that they knew how many beans made five, and how many shillings were in a pound, just as well as the Europeans.1894, New Zealand Parliament, Parliamentary Debates: House of Representatives

Questions about knowing how many beans make five

What is knowing how many beans make five the present participle and gerund of?
Knowing how many beans make five is the present participle and gerund of know how many beans make five.

Words near knowing how many beans make five in the dictionary

  1. knowing better
  2. knowing every trick in the book
  3. knowing fine well
  4. knowing from a bar of soap
  5. knowing full well
  6. knowing how many beans make five
  7. knowing how to pick 'em
  8. knowing how to walk before one can run
  9. knowing if one is Arthur or Martha
  10. knowing inside and out
  11. knowing like the back of one's hand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knowing how many beans make five (page history and authors); know how many beans make five (page history and authors). 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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