know

present singular third person knows · participle present knowing · past knew · nonstandard past knowed · participle past known · colloquial nonstandard participle past knew · first person past singular knew · archaic present second person singular knowest · past second person singular knew · archaic past second person singular knewest · present singular third person knows · archaic present singular third person knoweth · past singular third person knew · past plural knew · past subjunctive knew · participle present knowing

1. transitiveTo perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.

   I know that I’m right and you’re wrong.

   3 more examples

   Question things. I have the most fun when I'm writing questioning things that people do not question- the assumptions that everybody knows are true.

   1985 April 17, Frank Herbert, 15:46 from the start, in Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985, UCLACommStudies, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2017

   '[…] I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.' 'Thank you, sir.' Did he hell. They never bloody did.

   1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section II, page 24

   He knew something terrible was going to happen.

2. intransitiveTo be or become aware or cognizant.

   Malware's sometimes been known to sit dormant for a long time.

   2 more examples

   Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.

   ‘A Gentleman!’ quoth the Squire, ‘who the Devil can he be? Do, Doctor, go down and ſee who ’tis. Mr. Blifil can hardly be come to town yet.—Go down, do, and know what his Buſineſs is.[’]

   1749, Henry Fielding, “A whimsical Adventure which befel the Squire, with the distressed Situation of Sophia”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume VI, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XVI, page 7

3. transitiveTo be aware of; to be cognizant of.

   She knows where I live.

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   Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.

   I knew he was upset, but I didn't understand why.

   I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 18

   Discovered in 2015, the planet known as K2-18b is twice the size of Earth with eight times the mass. While it is thought to be rocky, no one knows if water’s flowing on the surface.

   2019 September 12, “Scientists discover water, temperature conditions right for life at planet called K2-18b outside solar system”, in South China Morning Post, sourced from Associated Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Sep 2019, Europe

4. intransitiveobsoleteTo be acquainted (with another person).

   You, and I haue knowne ſir.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi], page 350, column 1

5. transitiveTo be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.

   I know your mother, but I've never met your father.

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   Borja, do you know Pilar? - Sure, we've actually met before.

   I got to know her during the pandemic, so we've known each other for years now.

   I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I shall have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I had left New York for the West.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 1

   Marsha is my roommate. — I know Marsha. She is nice.

   2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

   1. archaiceuphemistictransitivebiblicalTo have sexual relations with. This meaning normally specified in modern English as e.g. to 'know someone in the biblical sense' or to 'know biblically'.

      Wait a second. Are you… attempting to know me?

      2003 May 11, Garland Testa, 19:37 from the start, in Gary McCarver, director, Night and Deity (King of the Hill), season 7, episode 21, spoken by Dale Gribble (Johnny Hardwick), 20th Century Fox

      2 more examples

      AFterwarde the man knewe Heuáh his wife, which cõceiued & bare Káin, & ſaid, I haue obteined a man by yͤ Lord.

      1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Genesis IIII:1, folio 2, verso

      Now Gerald had never thought of her having a mother. Then there must have been a father, too, some time. And Miss Wilmarth existed because two people once had loved and known. It was not a thought to dwell upon.

      1939, Dorothy Parker, “Horsie,”, in Here lies: The collected stories of Dorothy Parker

      Synonyms: coitize

6. transitiveTo experience.

   Their relationship knew ups and downs.

   1 more example

   The Truman family knew good times and bad,[…].

   1991, Irvin Haas, Historic Homes of the American Presidents, page 155

7. To understand or have a grasp of through experience or study.

   She knows how to swim.

   5 more examples

   Let me do it. I know how it works.

   His mother tongue is Italian, but he also knows French and English.

   She knows chemistry better than anybody else.

   Know your enemy and know yourself.

   The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.

   2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

8. transitiveTo be able to distinguish, to discern, particularly by contrast or comparison; to recognize the nature of.

   to know right from wrong

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   to know a person's face or figure

   I wouldn't know one from the other.

   Ye ſhall knowe them by their frutes.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew vij:[16], folio ix, recto

   The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

   1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, “The Shadow of the Bat”, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 6

   Flares do not know friend from foe and so illuminate both. Changes in wind direction can result in flare exposure of the attacker while defenders hide in the shadows.

   1980, Armored and mechanized brigade operations, p.3−29

9. transitiveTo recognize as the same (as someone or something previously encountered) after an absence or change.

   Ernest also is so much improved, that you would hardly know him:[…].

   1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 115

   1 more example

   At nearer view he thought he knew the dead, / And call'd the wretched man to mind.

   c. 1645-1688, Thomas Flatman, Translation of Part of Petronius Arbiter's Satyricon

10. intransitiveTo have knowledge; to have information, be informed.

    She knew of our plan.

    5 more examples

    It is vital that he not know.

    He knows about 19th century politics.

    “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

    1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 41

    Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.

    2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884

    Marsha knows.

    2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

11. transitiveTo be able to play or perform (a song or other piece of music).

    Do you know "Blueberry Hill"?

12. transitiveTo have indexed and have information about within one's database.

    Mmm... Seems you searched for a name that we don't know, we'll send our trained monkeys to check what's in stock.

    2023 June 7, “Search Names and Meanings”, in Name Doctor, archived from the original on 07 Jun 2023

13. transitivehuman sciencesTo maintain (a belief, a position) subject to a given philosophical definition of knowledge; to hold a justified true belief.

alternative Northumbria knaa · alternative obsolete knowe

1. rareuncountableKnowledge; the state of knowing.

   That on the view and know of theſe Contents, […] He ſhould the bearers put to […] death, […]

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 259, column 2

2. uncountableKnowledge; the state of knowing. (Now confined to the fixed phrase in the know.)

plural knows

1. alternativeAlternative form of knowe (“hill, knoll”).

   Owing to increasing numbers and consequent want of room for nestage, the old birds drove away the younger ones, who took refuge in their present abode at Fox's Know, where they have been located about six years.

   1868, History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, volumes 4-5, page 223

1. SinglishUsed at the end of a sentence to draw attention to information one thinks the listener should keep in mind.

   I was a naval diver know!

   3 more examples

   Make sure you water the plants, know…

   Are you sure they’re gonna give you someting more kilat? I think ah, they put you here to hentak kaki, know!

   2011, James Khoo, directed by James Khoo, Hentak Kaki (short film), spoken by Staff Sergeant (NS) Rajendran (P. Muruganandan / Richard Muru)

   Ah Chye (Charlie Goh): Eh hello, this is my territory know? Ang Bock Huat (Tristan Goh): Your territory? You think Scorpion very strong is it?

   2013, Pablo Tan, “Gang Clash” (00:05:25 from the start), in Crimewatch, season 27, episode 3, spoken by Ah Chye, Ang Bock Huat (Charlie Goh, Tristan Goh), via Channel 5 (Mediacorp)

2. SinglishSynonym of you know (used as a conversational discourse marker, to emphasize something)

   Synonyms: you know