Meanings
comparative more knowingly · superlative most knowingly
- In the manner of one who knows.
She smiled knowingly, but kept the secret.
1 more example
He pursed his lips knowingly and winked exaggeratedly.
1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 121 - With knowledge of all relevant facts.
We keep our prices low and are never knowingly undersold.
2 more examples
She would never knowingly pour any pollutant down the drain.
The real bombshell it contains is not the confidence of the spy agencies that Russia hoped to subvert American democracy. It is that US intelligence experts effectively confirmed that for the second election in a row, Trump acolytes repeatedly used, knowingly or otherwise, misinformation produced by the spies of one of America’s most sworn foreign adversaries to try to win a US election.
2021 March 17, Stephen Collinson, “New US intel report shows Russia, Trump and GOP acolytes have same goals”, in CNNSynonyms: awarely, consciously · Antonyms: unknowingly, obliviously, unawarely, unconsciously, subconsciously
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbWith knowledge of all relevant facts.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishknawyngly
- Englishknowingly
From Middle English knawyngly, knowyngly. By surface analysis, knowing + -ly.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian съзнателно, преднамерено
- съзнателно (săznatelno)adverb
- преднамерено (prednamereno)adverb
Danish megetsigende
- megetsigendeadverb
Finnish tietoisesti, tieten tahtoen
- tietoisestiadverb
- tieten tahtoenadverb
- tietenadverb
- varta vastenadverb
French sciemment
- sciemmentadverb
German wissentlich, bewusst
- wissentlichadverb
- bewusstadverb
Hindi जानकर
- जानकर (jānkar)adverb
Hungarian sokatmondóan
- sokatmondóanadverb
Latin scienter
- scienteradverb
Norwegian Bokmål megetsigende
- megetsigendeadverb
Russian понима́юще
- понима́юще (ponimájušče)adverb
Spanish a sabiendas, con conocimiento de causa
- a sabiendasadverb
- con conocimiento de causaadverb
- sabientementeadverb
- sabedoramenteadverb
- sabiendoadverb
Turkish bile bile
- bile bileadverb
Ukrainian знано, обізнано
- знано (znano)adverb
- обізнано (obiznano)adverb
- поінформовано (poinformovano)adverb
- розуміючо (rozumijučo)adverb
- свідомо (svidomo)adverb
- умисно (umysno)adverb
Cite this entry
knowingly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/knowingly
“knowingly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/knowingly. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “knowingly,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/knowingly.
Source: knowingly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.