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unknown

adjective

  1. mysterious, not familiar
L10957 on Wikidata ↗

noun

  1. entity whose identity is not known
L309440 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ʌn(ˈn)əʊn/ / /ʌnˈnoʊn/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English *unknowen, *uniknowen, uniknowe, from Old English unġecnāwen (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + known.

  1. 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.

  1. A variable (usually x, y or z) whose value is to be found.
  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  1. past participle of unknow