Unknowingly

How to spell unknowingly

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce unknowingly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unknowingly mean?

1. adverbWithout being aware of it; doing something without realising the fact or consequence.

Unknowingly in a sentence

• She unknowingly left the back door unlocked all weekend.

• He unknowingly signed a contract that waived his refund rights.

Where does unknowingly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adverb is built entirely from native English material. At its heart is the verb 'know', which descends from the Old English cnawan, meaning 'to recognise or be acquainted with', a word that goes all the way back to a shared Indo-European root for knowing that also gave Latin its noscere and Greek its gignoskein. To this English added the prefix un-, meaning simply 'not', and then stacked on the present participle ending -ing followed by the adverb-forming -ly, meaning roughly 'in the manner of'. The result describes doing something in a manner that lacks awareness or knowledge. The spelling trap lives at the seam: the prefix un- meets the k of know, so the word carries a doubled n that is easy to drop, and the silent k that English has long kept in 'know', 'knee', and 'knife' survives here too.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• know (from Old English cnawan, to recognise)
• -ing (present participle)
• -ly (adverb suffix)