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knowingness

American  
[noh-ing-nis] / ˈnoʊ ɪŋ nɪs /

noun

  1. the quality of being aware, intelligent, well-informed, or intentional; knowing quality.

  2. the quality of being shrewd, sharp, or astute, or of trying to seem so in a self-conscious way.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

It’s campy, it’s cheesy, it’s way more fun than you expect it to be, but there’s a knowingness to the whole endeavor.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 14, 2025

But my favorite member of the entourage is Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who brings a knowingness and a killer sense of comic timing to the role of Destiny, one of Jocelyn’s managers.

From New York Times Jun. 30, 2023

This knowingness is very maternal, and is cast over all of these characters like a blanket, or like signal fires themselves.

From Seattle Times Nov. 8, 2022

Strangers smiled and nodded with looks of knowingness as they listened to my mother’s memories.

From Washington Post Apr. 25, 2022

Death would be a complete knowingness, but what frightened him was this: not knowing beforehand what it was he would know.

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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