unknown

[uhn-nohn]

adjective

1. not known; not within the range of one's knowledge, experience, or understanding; strange; unfamiliar.

2. not discovered, explored, identified, or ascertained.

   the unknown parts of Antarctica.

3. not widely known; not famous; obscure.

   an unknown writer.

noun

1. a thing, influence, area, factor, or person that is unknown.

   the many unknowns in modern medicine; The director cast an unknown in the leading role.

2. Mathematics.,  a symbol representing an unknown quantity: in algebra, analysis, etc., frequently represented by a letter from the last part of the alphabet, as x, y, or z.

unknown

/ ʌnˈnəʊn /

adjective

1. not known, understood, or recognized

2. not established, identified, or discovered

   an unknown island

3. not famous; undistinguished

   some unknown artist

4. a person or thing whose action, effect, etc, is unknown or unpredictable

noun

1. an unknown person, quantity, or thing

2. maths a variable, or the quantity it represents, the value of which is to be discovered by solving an equation; a variable in a conditional equation

   3y = 4x + 5 is an equation in two unknowns

Other Word Forms

• unknownness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of unknown¹

First recorded in 1250–1300, unknown is from the Middle English word unknow(e)n. See un- ¹, known

Example Sentences

I wrote that explaining terminal lucidity through an unknown brain capability “would be akin to finding a way that blood can circulate when the heart stops pumping.”

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Then, police said two unknown people exited a gray sedan, grabbed the handcuffed suspect from the agents and put him in the back of their car, heading to an unknown location.

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She writes: “We hadn’t made our record to garner fame and fortune. We made it for the art rats known and unknown, the marginalized, the shunned, the disowned.”

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If AWS can avoid getting hampered by constraints like electricity and chip availability—a big unknown, to be sure—AWS should have plenty of computing power to grow with in the coming months.

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“I knew the provenance was good,” he explained, even if the producer and/or vintage was unknown.

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Related Words

• anonymous 
• exotic 
• foreign 
• nameless 
• new 
• remote 
• strange 
• uncharted 
• undiscovered 
• unexplained 
• unexplored 
• unfamiliar 
• unidentified 
• unnamed 
• unrecognized