Word.ws English Dictionary

knowing what is what

knowing what is what is the present participle and gerund of know what is what.

Meaning of know what is what

Verb

know what is what (third-person singular simple present knows what is what, present participle knowing what is what, simple past knew what was what, past participle known what was what)

  1. (idiomatic) To understand the current situation; to know what is going on.
    • He seems to have no trouble understanding stuff that, to me, sounds like hot garbage. He really does know what's what.

Questions about knowing what is what

What is knowing what is what the present participle and gerund of?
Knowing what is what is the present participle and gerund of know what is what.

Words near knowing what is what in the dictionary

  1. knowing the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
  2. knowing the drill
  3. knowing the ropes
  4. knowing the score
  5. knowing the shit
  6. knowing what is what
  7. knowing what o'clock it is
  8. knowing what side of one's bread is buttered
  9. knowing what side of the bread is buttered
  10. knowing what side one's bread is buttered on
  11. knowing what's o'clock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knowing what is what (page history and authors); know what is what (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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