unknown
UK/ʌn(ˈn)əʊn//ʌnˈnoʊn/
unknown adjective: not known; unidentified; not well known. Also the past participle of unknow.
Adjective
unknown (comparative more unknown, superlative most unknown)
- Not known; unidentified; not well known.
- The concept has existed since times unknown.
- 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...1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58
- Synonyms:
- anonymous, unfamiliar, uncharted, undiscovered, unexplored, unidentified, unnamed, unrecognized, unrevealed, unascertained
- Antonyms:
- well-known, famous, known
Noun
unknown (plural unknowns)
- A variable (usually x, y or z) whose value is to be found.
- 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?1957, Ethel Erford Hewitt, Into the Unknown: An Historical Novel, page 351
- I think I learned more from my family than they did from me in the brief idyllic time we spent together. None of them much more than a mile from home, they carried the aura of a close-knit community as a shield against against the unknown.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 217
- 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 stone1965, Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”, in Bob Dylan (lyrics), Highway 61 Revisited (vinyl), performed by Bob Dylan, Columbia Records, →OCLC, side A of retail US single; on YouTube, English - en...
- Khaleque, the landowner, who had contributed most of the money needed to transform the neglected burial-place of an unknown into a mazar, masked his pride and pleasure with difficulty. He solemnly declared: ‘Perhaps now we shall be forgiven for neglecting the saint all these years.’1967 [1949], Syed Waliullah, chapter 3, in Tree Without Roots (Fiction), London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 27
Also used as
unknown is also the past participle of unknow.
unknown meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
unknown in Hindi
- not known
- अनजान anjān, अनजाना anjānā, अजाना ajānā, अख्यात akhyāt, अज्ञात ajñāt, नामालूम nāmālūm
unknown in Tamil
- அறியாதவர், அறியாதது, அறியப்படாதது
unknown in Marathi
- अज्ञात
unknown in Urdu
- نامعلوم, ناواقف
More languagesFewer languages
- unknown in Bengali
- অজানা, অজ্ঞাত
- unknown in Telugu
- తెలియనిది, తెలియని, తెలియనివి
- unknown in Malayalam
- അജ്ഞാതൻ, അറിയപ്പെടാത്തവർ, അറിയപ്പെടാതെ
- unknown in Kannada
- ಅಪರಿಚಿತ, ಅಜ್ಞಾತ, ತಿಳಿಯದ
- unknown in Punjabi
- ਅਣਜਾਣ, ਅਣਜਾਣ ਹੈ
- unknown in Gujarati
- અજ્ઞાત, અજાણ્યો, અજાણ્યું
- unknown in Odia
- ଅଜଣା
- unknown in Sanskrit
- अज्ञात ajñāta
- unknown in Nepali
- अज्ञात, अपरिचित
- unknown in Arabic
- مَجْهُول majhūl, مُبْهَم mubham, مُتَغَيِّر mutaḡayyir, غَامِض ḡāmiḍ
- unknown in Indonesian
- tak diketahui
- unknown in Persian
- مجهول majhul
- unknown in Vietnamese
- không biết
Examples of unknown in a sentence
- The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
- I suspect that this large and complex military railway system, shrouded in official secrecy for most of its operational life, remains unknown to many people.2022 January 12, Chris Hegg, “The secret railway in the woods”, in RAIL, number 948, page 34:
- This is one of the biggest unknowns in these scenarios, and yet compliance can be the most crucial factor in determining whether an intervention works.2020 April 9, Ian Boyd, “We practised for a pandemic, but didn’t brace”, in Nature, volume 580, number 7802, page 9:
Synonyms of unknown
- anonymous
- unfamiliar
- uncharted
- undiscovered
- unexplored
- unidentified
- unnamed
- unrecognized
- unrevealed
- unascertained
8 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of unknown
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more unknown |
| superlative | most unknown |
| Noun | |
| plural | unknowns |
Origin of unknown
From Middle English *unknowen, *uniknowen, uniknowe, from Old English unġecnāwen (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + known.
Words formed from unknown
Phrases with unknown
Words that rhyme with unknown
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- moan
- throne
- atone
- clone
- crone
- prone
- depone
- hone
- loan
- cologne
- condone
- disenthrone
- disown
- eau de cologne
- enthrone
- groan
- intone
- roan
- Sloan
- Sloane
- thrown
- bemoan
- cobblestone
- Copplestone
- grown
- joan
- known
- none
- overgrown
- pension
- phone
- postpone
- redstone
- sone
- Stallone
- answer phone
- arthron
- beknown
- cauterizing stone
- compone
- crosne
- crown
- cuboidal bone
- cuttlefish bone
- Ediphone
- enzone
- flown
- Four Shire Stone
Questions about unknown
- What does unknown mean?
- Unknown means not known; unidentified; not well known.
- What is unknown in Hindi?
- Unknown in Hindi is अनजान (anjān), अनजाना (anjānā), अजाना (ajānā). See Unknown meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use unknown in a sentence?
- The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs.
- What part of speech is unknown?
- Unknown can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce unknown?
- Unknown is pronounced /ʌn(ˈn)əʊn/ (UK).
Words near unknown in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: unknown (page history and authors); unknown (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unknown (Nepali, 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-unknown.ogg.
Cite this entry: “unknown.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unknown. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.