Meanings
- not comparablewith toWithout the knowledge of.
He went home early, unbeknownst to his mother.
1 more example
Theon’s redemption scene convincingly threatens to kill him right there on the beaches of Dragonstone, dying for a good cause unbeknownst to anyone but the rapscallions who watched him die, but at last it swerves into something genuinely heroic.
2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
adjective(usually used with ‘to’) occurring or existing without the knowledge of
adverbwithout someone's knowledge
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Variant of unbeknown with excrescent -st.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic مُبْهَم
- مُبْهَم (mubham)without the knowledge of
Bulgarian непознат
- непознат (nepoznat)without the knowledge of
Chinese Mandarin 在不知道的情況下 /在不知道的情况下
- 在不知道的情況下 /在不知道的情况下 (zài bù zhīdào de qíngkuàng xià)without the knowledge of
Danish uden ngns vidende
- uden ngns videndewithout the knowledge of
Dutch buiten medeweten van
- buiten medeweten vanwithout the knowledge of
Esperanto nesciate de
- nesciate dewithout the knowledge of
French à l’insu de
- à l’insu dewithout the knowledge of
German ohne Wissen
- ohne Wissenwithout the knowledge of
Greek εν αγνοία
- εν αγνοία (en agnoía)without the knowledge of
Hungarian tudtán kívül, tudta nélkül
- tudtán kívülwithout the knowledge of
- tudta nélkülwithout the knowledge of
Irish gan fhios
- gan fhioswithout the knowledge of
Italian all'insaputa
- all'insaputawithout the knowledge of
Polish bez wiedzy
- bez wiedzywithout the knowledge of
Portuguese sem o conhecimento de
- sem o conhecimento dewithout the knowledge of
Russian без ве́дома
- без ве́дома (bez védoma)without the knowledge of
Scottish Gaelic gun fhiosta
- gun fhiostawithout the knowledge of
Spanish sin el conocimiento de, desconocido
- sin el conocimiento dewithout the knowledge of
- desconocidowithout the knowledge of
Swedish någon ovetande, någon ovetandes
- någon ovetandewithout the knowledge of
- någon ovetandeswithout the knowledge of
Welsh heb yn wybod i
- heb yn wybod iwithout the knowledge of
Cite this entry
unbeknownst. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unbeknownst
“unbeknownst.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unbeknownst. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unbeknownst,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unbeknownst.
Source: unbeknownst on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.