know

Meanings

Verb

• To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of or that.
• To be aware of; to be cognizant of.
• To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.
• To experience.
• To be able to distinguish, to discern, particularly by contrast or comparison; to recognize the nature of.
• To recognize as the same (as someone or something previously encountered) after an absence or change.
• To understand or have a grasp of through experience or study.
• To have sexual relations with. This meaning normally specified in modern English as e.g. to ’know someone in the biblical sense’ or to ‘know Biblically.’
• To have knowledge; to have information, be informed.
• To be or become aware or cognizant.
• To be acquainted (with another person).
• To be able to play or perform (a song or other piece of music).

Noun

• Knowledge; the state of knowing.
• Knowledge; the state of knowing; now confined to the fixed phrase ‘in the know’

Related

Narrower meaning words

• grok

Origin

• From Middle English knowen, from Old English cnāwan ("to know, perceive, recognise"), from Proto-West Germanic *knāan, from Proto-Germanic *knēaną ("to know"), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- ("to know").
• from Proto-Germanic: Scots knaw ("to know, recognise"), Icelandic kná ("to know, know how to, be able"), Old High German knājan ("to know, recognise"), Old Norse kná ("to know how"). Remotely related also Dutch and German kennen, West Frisian kenne (see English ken).
• from Indo-European: Latin cognoscō (Spanish conocer, French connaître, Italian conoscere, Portuguese conhecer), Ancient Greek γνωρίζω ("I know") and γνῶσις, Albanian njoh ("I know, recognise"), Russian знать ("to know"), Lithuanian žinoti ("to know"), and Persian شناختن ("to know").