unknown
adjective
- mysterious, not familiar
noun
- entity whose identity is not known
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ʌn(ˈn)əʊn/ / /ʌnˈnoʊn/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English *unknowen, *uniknowen, uniknowe, from Old English unġecnāwen (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + known.
- Not known; unidentified; not well known.
“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 house.”
“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.”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English *unknowen, *uniknowen, uniknowe, from Old English unġecnāwen (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + known.
- 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?”
“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.”
- 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 stone”
“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.’”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English *unknowen, *uniknowen, uniknowe, from Old English unġecnāwen (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + known.
- past participle of unknow