Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

the more you know

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.87 in modern English

Syllables: the -more y-ou -know
IPA

29

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

4

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

phrase

Used to imply that a piece of information that otherwise seems trivial or uninteresting might represent valuable knowledge.

Humorous

Example Sentences

"The more you know: Give birthday boy Len Goodman a Mirrorball-trophy-inspired cake, and he'll dish out 9's and 10's on Dancing With the Stars! Yes, this week was quite a change after last week's head-scratching episode—and all is happy again in the ballroom."
"Fun fact: Elizabeth became the longest-reigning British monarch in history in 2017 when she passed the record previously held by Queen Victoria, who ruled for 63 years, from 1837 to 1901. George III, the longest-reigning man on the list, comes in third overall with 59 years on the throne—the more you know, right?)."
"While you may not have heard of it, sea kelp has been eaten and used medicinally for hundreds of years in various forms. Some sea kelp by-products are even a common ingredient in ice cream, salad dressings and chocolate milk. The more you know, eh?"
"Zoë [Kravitz] posts a rare pic of the couple on Instagram alongside the caption, “#BLINKTWICE in theaters august 23rd 🌴.” A lil refresher that Blink Twice is the actor’s highly anticipated upcoming directorial debut, which was renamed after initially being called Pussy Island. The more you know!"

Etymology

An ellipsis (specifically, an anapodoton) representing the first part of a comparative correlative construction. Popularized by The More You Know (1989–present), an NBCUniversal series of public service announcements that features educational messages. The phrase's association with the emoji 🌠 is inspired by the graphics that accompany the phrase in that series. Collocations such as the more you know, the better [X] long predate the PSA series, but the more you know as an anapodoton seems not to predate it.

Usage

Humorous

Phrases

the more you know, the higher you go you learn something new every day knowing is half the battle you don't know the half of it

Frequently Paired Words

the more you know, the higher you go TIL you learn something new every day knowing is half the battle you don't know the half of it

Questions

What does the more you know mean?: Used to imply that a piece of information that otherwise seems trivial or uninteresting might represent valuable knowledge.
Where does the more you know come from?: An ellipsis (specifically, an anapodoton) representing the first part of a comparative correlative construction. Popularized by The More You Know (1989–present), an NBCUniversal series of public service announcements that features educational messages. The phrase's association with the emoji 🌠 is inspired by the graphics that accompany the phrase in that series. Collocations such as the more you know, the better [X] long predate the PSA series, but the more you know as an anapodoton seems not to predate it.

How to pronounce the more you know

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