(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If something is ~ to you, you have no knowledge of it.
An ~ number of demonstrators were arrested...
How did you expect us to proceed on such a perilous expedition, through ~ terrain...
The motive for the killing is ~.
ADJ
•
An ~ is something that is ~.
The length of the war is one of the biggest ~s.
N-COUNT
2.
An ~ person is someone whose name you do not know or whose character you do not know anything about.
Unknown thieves had forced their way into the apartment...
I could not understand how someone with so many awards could be ~ to me.
ADJ
3.
An ~ person is not famous or publicly recognized.
He was an ~ writer.
...a popular environment where both established and ~ artists can meet, talk and drink.
ADJ
•
An ~ is a person who is ~.
Within a short space of time a group of complete ~s had established a wholly original form of humour.
N-COUNT
4.
If you say that a particular problem or situation is ~, you mean that it never occurs.
A hundred years ago coronary heart disease was virtually ~ in Europe and America.
= unheard of
ADJ: usu v-link ADJ
5.
The ~ refers generally to things or places that people do not know about or understand.
Ignorance of people brings fear, fear of the ~.
N-SING: the N