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known

known

3 3.7
A fact or piece of information that people already understand
  • noun
  • /noʊn/
translation icon : conocido
  • To organize our guide to what is happening in Ohio, we're going to take a page from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who once famously said, "There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know."
  • knowns and unknowns
  • lesser-known
  • last known

Examples

  • There are no knowns.

  • ...There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.

  • There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.

    Blog text (34)
  • As we know, there are known knowns.

    Blog text (15)
  • The period from 1958 to 1984 can be called the period of the known knowns.

    Academic text (2017)
  • Start with knowns, not unknowns.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • This limits understanding that the field is ripe with dissenting positions and more unknowns than knowns.

    Academic text (2005)
  • It is very true that the unknowns about obesity are far greater than the knowns.

    Blog text (32)
  • The teacher provided several known examples to illustrate the concept.

  • In science, there are many known facts that support the theory of evolution.

Synonyms

given
vsknown
4 4.6

A fact or condition treated as true in a situation

is an established fact recognized among several related facts

Antonyms

41 6.1

Something you do not know or cannot identify, for example a variable in math

Idioms

212 2.0

Famous for a particular quality, activity, or achievement

To give another name for a person or thing

Compounds

253 1.0

Familiar to many people and often talked about

104 1.9

Most people know it

34 7.3

Few people know about it

7 3.8

More widely known than another person or thing

How Familiar

well-known
253 1.0
known
3 3.7
unknown
41 6.1

Surface Forms

known singular
knowns plural

Etymology

Knowns comes from the adjective known and the verb know, and it simply means 'things we know' or facts we already accept. So when people list the knowns, they are naming the facts that are already recognized.