know
Meanings
- To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.
- To be or become aware or cognizant.
- To be aware of; to be cognizant of.
- To be acquainted (with another person).
- To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.
- To 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'.
- To experience.
- To understand or have a grasp of through experience or study.
- To be able to distinguish, to discern, particularly by contrast or comparison; to recognize the nature of.
- To recognize as the same (as someone or something previously encountered) after an absence or change.
- To have knowledge; to have information, be informed.
- To be able to play or perform (a song or other piece of music).
- Knowledge; the state of knowing.
- Knowledge; the state of knowing. (Now confined to the fixed phrase in the know.)
- Alternative form of knowe (“hill, knoll”).
- Used at the end of a sentence to draw attention to information one thinks the listener should keep in mind.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English knowen, from Old English cnāwan (“to know, perceive, recognise”), from Proto-West Germanic *knāan, from Proto-Germanic *knēaną (“to know”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”). Cognates from Indo-European: Latin gnoscō, Latin cognoscō (Spanish conocer, French connaître, Romanian cunoaște, Italian conoscere, Portuguese conhecer), Ancient Greek γνωρίζω (gnōrízō, “to know”) and γνῶσις (gnôsis, “knowledge”), Albanian njoh (“to know, recognise”), Russian знать (znatʹ, “to know”), Lithuanian žinoti (“to know”), and Persian شناختن (šenâxtan, “to know”). from Proto-Germanic: Scots knaw (“to know, recognise”), Icelandic knega (“to know, know how to, be able”), Old High German knājan (“to know, recognise”), Old Norse kná (“to know how”). Remotely related also Dutch and German kennen, West Frisian kenne (see English ken).