(unknowns)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If something is unknown to you, you have no knowledge of it.
An unknown number of demonstrators were arrested...
How did you expect us to proceed on such a perilous expedition, through unknown terrain...
The motive for the killing is unknown.
ADJ
•
An unknown is something that is unknown.
The length of the war is one of the biggest unknowns.
N-COUNT
2.
An unknown person is someone whose name you do not know or whose character you do not know anything about.
Unknown thieves had forced their way into the apartment...
I could not understand how someone with so many awards could be unknown to me.
ADJ
3.
An unknown person is not famous or publicly recognized.
He was an unknown writer.
...a popular environment where both established and unknown artists can meet, talk and drink.
ADJ
•
An unknown is a person who is unknown.
Within a short space of time a group of complete unknowns had established a wholly original form of humour.
N-COUNT
4.
If you say that a particular problem or situation is unknown, you mean that it never occurs.
A hundred years ago coronary heart disease was virtually unknown in Europe and America.
= unheard of
ADJ: usu v-link ADJ
5.
The unknown refers generally to things or places that people do not know about or understand.
Ignorance of people brings fear, fear of the unknown.
N-SING: the N