# unknown

Pronunciation: say "un-NOHN" US /ʌnˈnoʊn/, UK /ʌn(ˈn)əʊn/

## Adjective

1. Not known or identified, or not widely recognized or familiar.
   - Simple: Not known about, or not familiar to most people.
   - _The painting's artist remains unknown to this day._
   - _She rose from an unknown singer to an international star in two years._

## Noun

2. A thing, place, or situation about which nothing is known; a fact that has not yet been discovered.
   - Simple: Something, somewhere, or a fact that nobody knows anything about.
   - _Every mission into deep space confronts explorers with the unknown._
   - _The report listed several unknowns that the engineers still had to investigate._
3. A variable, usually written x, y, or z, whose value must be determined.
   - Simple: A number you do not know yet and have to find, often shown as x.
   - _Each equation in the system contains two unknowns to solve for._
   - _Isolate the unknown on one side of the equation before substituting values._
4. A person who has no public identity or importance; a nonentity.
   - Simple: A person whom nobody knows or thinks is important.
   - _The election was won by a political unknown from a small town._
   - _Critics dismissed the director as an unknown with no track record._

## Verb

5. Past participle of unknow. — past participle of unknow
   - Simple: Past participle of unknow. Use this form after have, has, had, or be to talk about making something no longer known.
   - _Some truths, once grasped, can never be unknown._
   - _He wished the secret could be unknown, but knowledge does not retreat so easily._

## Origin

From Middle English unknowen, from Old English unġecnāwen ("unknown"), equivalent to un- plus known.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/unknown (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).