Adjacent Words

Unknown definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

UNKNOWN, a.
1. Not known. The author of the invention is unknown.
2. Greater than is imagined.
3. Not having had cohabitation.
4. Not having communication.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not known; "an unknown amount"; "an unknown island"; "an unknown writer"; "an unknown source" [ant: known]
2: being or having an unknown or unnamed source; "a poem by an unknown author"; "corporations responsible to nameless owners"; "an unnamed donor" [syn: nameless, unidentified, unknown, unnamed]
3: not known to exist; "things obscurely felt surged up from unknown depths"
4: not famous or acclaimed; "an obscure family"; "unsung heroes of the war" [syn: obscure, unknown, unsung]
5: not known before; "used many strange words"; "saw many strange faces in the crowd"; "don't let anyone unknown into the house" [syn: strange, unknown] n
1: an unknown and unexplored region; "they came like angels out the unknown" [syn: unknown, unknown region, terra incognita]
2: anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found [syn: stranger, alien, unknown] [ant: acquaintance, friend]
3: a variable whose values are solutions of an equation [syn: unknown, unknown quantity]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Date: 14th century not known or not well-known; also having an unknown value <an unknown quantity> II. noun Date: 1597 1. one that is not known or not well-known; especially a person who is little known (as to the public) 2. something that requires discovery, identification, or clarification: as a. a symbol (as x, y, or z) in a mathematical equation representing an unknown quantity b. a specimen (as of bacteria or mixed chemicals) required to be identified as an exercise in appropriate laboratory techniques

U.S. Military Dictionary

1. A code meaning "information not available." 2. An unidentified target. An aircraft or ship that has not been determined to be hostile, friendly, or neutral using identification friend or foe and other techniques, but that must be tracked by air defense or naval engagement systems. 3. An identity applied to an evaluated track that has not been identified. See also assumed friend; friend; hostile; neutral; suspect.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. (often foll. by to) not known, unfamiliar (his purpose was unknown to me). --n. 1 an unknown thing or person. 2 an unknown quantity (equation in two unknowns). Phrases and idioms: unknown country see COUNTRY. unknown quantity a person or thing whose nature, significance, etc., cannot be determined. Unknown Soldier an unidentified representative member of a country's armed forces killed in war, given burial with special honours in a national memorial. unknown to without the knowledge of (did it unknown to me). Unknown Warrior = Unknown Soldier. Derivatives: unknownness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Unknown Un*known", a. Not known; not apprehended. -- Un*known"ness, n. [R.] --Camden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(unknowns) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If something is unknown to you, you have no knowledge of it. An unknown number of demonstrators were arrested... How did you expect us to proceed on such a perilous expedition, through unknown terrain... The motive for the killing is unknown. ADJ • An unknown is something that is unknown. The length of the war is one of the biggest unknowns. N-COUNT 2. An unknown person is someone whose name you do not know or whose character you do not know anything about. Unknown thieves had forced their way into the apartment... I could not understand how someone with so many awards could be unknown to me. ADJ 3. An unknown person is not famous or publicly recognized. He was an unknown writer. ...a popular environment where both established and unknown artists can meet, talk and drink. ADJ • An unknown is a person who is unknown. Within a short space of time a group of complete unknowns had established a wholly original form of humour. N-COUNT 4. If you say that a particular problem or situation is unknown, you mean that it never occurs. A hundred years ago coronary heart disease was virtually unknown in Europe and America. = unheard of ADJ: usu v-link ADJ 5. The unknown refers generally to things or places that people do not know about or understand. Ignorance of people brings fear, fear of the unknown. N-SING: the N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Unascertained. 2. Unexplored, uninvestigated. 3. Mysterious, mystic, hidden, dark, enigmatical. 4. Without the knowledge of. 5. Obscure, undistinguished, nameless, unnoted, unhonored, renownless, inglorious.

Moby Thesaurus

Heaven, Paradise, a better place, able, abstruse, afterlife, afterworld, anonymous, beclouded, blind, buried, close, clouded, concealed, covered, covert, cryptonymic, cryptonymous, dark, dark horse, destiny, eclipsed, enigma, enigmatic, eternal home, fate, frontier, frontiers of knowledge, future state, hid, hidden, home, humble, ignotus, in a cloud, in a fog, in eclipse, in purdah, in the wings, incalculable, incognito, incognizable, incommunicado, inglorious, innominate, latent, life after death, life to come, little known, matter of ignorance, mysterious, mystery, n, nameless, next world, no credit to, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, occult, otherworld, postexistence, puzzle, puzzling, recondite, renownless, riddle, sealed, sealed book, secluded, secluse, secret, sequestered, strange, terra incognita, the beyond, the good hereafter, the grave, the great beyond, the great hereafter, the hereafter, the incalculable, the strange, the unfamiliar, the unknowable, the unknown, unacknowledged, unapparent, unapprehended, unascertained, unbeknown, uncelebrated, uncharted, unclassified, undefined, under an eclipse, under cover, under house arrest, under wraps, underground, undesignated, undisclosed, undiscoverable, undiscovered, undistinguished, undivulged, unexplained, unexplored, unexplored ground, unexplored territory, unexposed, unfamed, unfamiliar, unfathomed, unglorified, unheard, unheard-of, unhonored, unidentified, uninvestigated, unknowable, unknown quantity, unnamed, unnotable, unnoted, unnoticed, unperceived, unplumbed, unpopular, unrecognized, unremarked, unrenowned, unrevealed, unspecified, unsung, unsuspected, untold, untouched, virgin, what bodes, what is fated, without a name, world to come, wrapped in clouds, x, z