Human-verified examples from authoritative sources
Exact Expressions
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His argument is that GM varieties are less risky because very few new genes are transferred and they are carefully selected: Even the possibility of "unknown unknowns " does not stand up as a legitimate concern because the unpredictability of a new GM variety is much less than in conventional breeding.
Their whereabouts remain unknown.
His whereabouts are unknown.
She was the first winner of American Idol, before it became a defining juggernaut of a decade's pop culture; it's hard to imagine now, but when Clarkson first auditioned, the fate of the show – let alone its contestants – was an unknown.
Some believe the weather is already being shaped by "chemtrails" – aeroplane contrails deliberately laced with toxic chemicals – and mysterious weather warmongers are, for reasons unknown , making the eastern US unbearably chilly and California stricken by drought.
An insufficient number of police were deployed to Mare Street and Clarence Road, offering futile attempts to contain the anger of a vast number of youths, the source of which remains unknown.
Born in Leicester, the 27-year-old musical unknown was selected as the Eurovision candidate after she caught the eye of BBC executives.
A veteran of the rebellions against the 1992 Maastricht treaty that put modern Tory hostility to Brussels on the political map, he was battling the EU when Nigel Farage was an unknown twentysomething working for a French bank.
The facility was even unknown to Rob Warden, the founder of Northwestern University Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions, until the Guardian informed him of the allegations of clients who vanish into inherently coercive police custody.
Two years on from that first visit, I recall a gazelle-like, beautiful human being floating about in the covers, a man with the balance and grace of a ballet dancer – he was an as yet unknown David Gower, still a season away from swivelling pulling his first ball in Test cricket for four.
She photographed toffs and people in slums, she photographedthe famous and the unknown , those in great distress and those full of gladness and success, and she saw beyond richness, poverty, status and the lack of it, to the human heart.
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The word "unknown" primarily functions as an adjective , modifying nouns to indicate a lack of knowledge or identification. Ludwig AI confirms its proper usage. Examples include "unknown whereabouts" or "unknown reasons". It can also function as a noun , referring to something not known.
Expression frequency: Very common
