Merriam-Webster Word of the Day - Unbeknownst

WORD OF THE DAY June 6, 2018

unbeknownst    adjective | un-bih-NOHNST     Definition   1 :  happening or existing without the knowledge of someone specified — usually used with to   2 : not known or not well-known : unknown   Scroll down for more about unbeknownst      TRENDING NOW: suborn abhorrent embolization oleaginous SEE ALL      PEOPLE ARE READING   The Strange Story of 'Lumber'     The Problems with 'Very'     8 Words for Really Big Things     The Declassified History of 'Security Blanket'         WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE   Winning Words from Scripps Spelling Bee Quiz   Can you outdo past winners of the Spelling Bee?     PLAY NOW     Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try!  TAKE ME THERE         Did You Know?   Unbeknownst is an irregular variant of the older unbeknown, which derives from beknown, an obsolete synonym of known. But for a word with a straightforward history, unbeknownst and the now less common unbeknown have caused quite a stir among usage commentators. In spite of widespread use (including appearances in the writings of Charles Dickens, A. E. Housman, and E. B. White), the grammarian H. W. Fowler in 1926 categorized the two words as "out of use except in dialect or uneducated speech." The following year, G. P. Krapp called them "humorous, colloquial, and dialectal." Our evidence, however, shows that both words are standard even in formal prose.     Examples of UNBEKNOWNST   "… Travis was the one who paid the bills—and he often used credit cards to cover them, unbeknownst to Vonnie." — Penny Wrenn, Forbes.com, 9 Oct. 2013   "… Senate Bill 15, approved unanimously by that House committee Thursday, hopes to help homeowners who find themselves the victim of 'squatting'—people who illegally move into a home, often unbeknownst to the homeowner." — Marianne Goodland, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado), 12 Apr. 2018   Test Your Vocabulary   Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective that means "not made known" or "not named or identified": _ n _ _ s _ l _ _ e _.   VIEW THE ANSWER           MERCH     Show Your Wordie Pride!   New swag now available — featuring our newly added words welp and wordie   CHECK OUT OUR SELECTION            MORE WORD FUN:     WORD GAMES         TRENDING NOW         WORDS AT PLAY