Skip to main content
unknowingly

unknowingly

22 4.2
Doing something without being aware of it
  • adverb
  • /ʌnˈnoʊɪŋli/
translation icon : sin saberlo
  • On the other hand, some older men and women unknowingly repeat stories to the class.
  • knowingly or unknowingly
  • Perhaps unknowingly

A lot of women struggle knowingly or unknowingly with being emotionally selfish.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • So we're getting hit unknowingly and we're not voting for that.

  • Along with the newspaper, he unknowingly hands over $8,000, which he was supposed to deposit.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • I just unknowingly committed a crime back there!

  • That is because, unknowingly... I gave it a criminal brain.

  • Alongside them live the Black employees, characters whose lives they unknowingly direct.

    Academic text (2008)
  • And so this became the start, unknowingly, of a very, very difficult time in my real estate business and honestly in my life.

  • That video made me realize that I unknowingly broke up a natural friendship.

  • So I mentioned that we kind of started this journey frankly unknowingly, but about a decade ago.

  • We unknowingly take responsibility for everyone's happiness but our own.

  • He unknowingly revealed his secret in front of his friends.

Synonyms

accidentally
vsunknowingly
354 1.4

In a way that is not planned and happens by mistake

involves lack of awareness rather than mere randomness or chance
inadvertently
vsunknowingly
68 5.2

Without meaning to do something

focuses on carelessness or oversight rather than pure unawareness
unconsciously
vsunknowingly
38 4.0

Without thinking or knowing you do something

stresses lack of internal thought rather than only missing intention
unintentionally
vsunknowingly
32 3.4

Without meaning to

also implies lack of awareness rather than only absence of plan
unwittingly
vsunknowingly
29 6.0

In a way you do not know you are doing

has identical meaning and no difference in sense
unbeknownst to
vsunknowingly
19 8.9

Something that happens without someone's knowledge

refers to the actor lacking awareness rather than someone else's ignorance
obliviously
vsunknowingly
1 6.5

Not noticing what happens around you

means actual unawareness rather than only appearing unaware to others
unsuspectingly
vsunknowingly
1 5.9

Without thinking anything is wrong

applies to general lack of awareness rather than only absence of suspicion

Antonyms

76 3.9

In a way that shows you know and do it on purpose

How Aware

knowingly
76 3.9
inadvertently
68 5.2
unwittingly
29 6.0
unknowingly
22 4.2

Surface Forms

unknowingly positive

Morphology

unknowingly = unknowing (transparent) = un + know + ing + ly

The adverb is formed by adding the productive adverbial suffix '-ly' to the adjective 'unknowing' (un- + knowing), producing a predictable meaning.

Etymology

Unknowingly is made from the parts un- ('not'), the verb know, and -ly ('in a way'), so it means 'not knowing in a way'. That's why to do something unknowingly is to do it without being 'aware' or 'on purpose'.