Word.ws English Dictionary

the more you know

the more you know phrase: used to imply that a piece of information that otherwise seems trivial or uninteresting might represent valuable knowledge.

Phrase

the more you know

  1. (humorous, often) Used to imply that a piece of information that otherwise seems trivial or uninteresting might represent valuable knowledge.
    • The more you know: Give birthday boy Len Goodman a Mirrorball-trophy-inspired cake, and he'll dish out 9's and 10's on Dancing With the Stars! Yes, this week was quite a change after last week's head-scratching episode—and all is happy again in the ballroom.2016 April 25, Jessica Radloff, “Dancing With the Stars 2016 Famous Dances Week Recap: Doug Flutie and Karina Smirnoff Are Eliminated”, in Glamour
    • Fun fact: Elizabeth became the longest-reigning British monarch in history in 2017 when she passed the record previously held by Queen Victoria, who ruled for 63 years, from 1837 to 1901. George III, the longest-reigning man on the list, comes in third overall with 59 years on the throne—the more...2019 June 2, Kayleigh Roberts, “The Royal Family Celebrates Queen Elizabeth's Coronation Anniversary on Instagram”, in Marie Claire

Origin of the more you know

An ellipsis (specifically, an anapodoton) representing the first part of a comparative correlative construction. Popularized by The More You Know (1989–present), an NBCUniversal series of public service announcements that features educational messages. The phrase's association with the emoji 🌠 is inspired by the graphics that accompany the phrase in that series. Collocations such as the more you know, the better [X] long predate the PSA series, but the more you know as an anapodoton seems not to predate it.

Questions about the more you know

What does the more you know mean?
The more you know means used to imply that a piece of information that otherwise seems trivial or uninteresting might represent valuable knowledge.
What part of speech is the more you know?
The more you know is a phrase.

Words near the more you know in the dictionary

  1. the moon on a stick
  2. the more fool someone
  3. the more one learns about people, the more one likes one's pet
  4. the more the merrier
  5. the more things change, the more they stay the same
  6. the more you know
  7. the more you know, the higher you go
  8. the nail that sticks out gets hammered down
  9. the nail that sticks up gets hammered down
  10. the natives are getting restless
  11. the natives are restless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the more you know (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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Cite this entry: “the more you know.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the_more_you_know. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.