knowledge
noun
Knowledge — what the mind keeps after perception, learning, and thought
Definition
The psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning
In depth
Knowledge is the accumulated result of perceiving, learning, and reasoning, the body of understanding a mind has gathered and retained over time. The word carries enormous philosophical weight, since centuries of inquiry have struggled to define exactly what separates true knowledge from mere belief or opinion.
Origin
The word descends from Old English cnawan, to know, related to a vast Indo-European root family concerned with recognition and familiarity. The entire philosophical discipline of epistemology, from Greek episteme, knowledge, exists to ask the single question this ancient word never fully answers on its own: what, precisely, must be true for someone to be said to know something?
Usage examples
"Her knowledge of the old language had come not from school but from her grandmother's stubborn insistence on speaking it at home."
"The library held centuries of accumulated knowledge, much of it now forgotten by everyone who once needed it."
"He had begun to suspect that real knowledge, the kind that changes a life, cannot be taught, only earned."
How to use it
Knowledge is universal, plain vocabulary suited to every register, though writers interested in philosophical depth often distinguish it carefully from related terms like wisdom or information, each implying a different relationship between mind and truth.
Related concepts
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