who knows

English

Pronunciation

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Phrase

who knows?

1. A rhetorical question asked to show that the person asking it neither knows the answer nor knows who might.

   It could be one or the other, or both. Who knows?

   Do you think I'll get married before I turn 30? – Who knows, you might never marry.

2. A rhetorical question asked to express the idea that anything is possible or that anything could happen.

   Who knows? Maybe someday he'll finish writing his book and make lots of money selling it.

   Since she hasn't studied at all I don't think she'll pass the test, but who knows?

   Don't touch that – who knows where it's been?

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:who knows.

Translations

rhetorical question: one doesn't know

• Arabic: مَن يَدْرِي؟ (man yadrī?), اَللّٰهُ أَعْلَم (allāhu ʔaʕlam), إِبْصَر (ʔibṣar)
• Basque: auskalo
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誰知道？／谁知道？ (zh) (shéi zhīdào)

• Dutch: wie weet, wie zal het zeggen?
• Finnish: kukapa tietää, tiedä häntä (fi)
• French: qui sait ? (fr)
• Galician: quen sabe?
• German: wer weiß?
• Greek: ποιος ξέρει; (poios xérei?)
• Hebrew: השד יודע
• Hungarian: ki tudja?
• Icelandic: hver veit?
• Italian: chissà? (it)
• Japanese: さあ？ (ja) (sā?), …かもしれない (…ka mo shirenai)
• Macedonian: ко́јзнае (kójznae), кој го знае (koj go znae), кој ќе знае (koj ḱe znae)
• Navajo: haashį́į́ néelą́ą́ʼ?
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hvem vet?

  Nynorsk: kven veit?, ikkje godt å vita

• Polish: kto wie? (pl)
• Portuguese: quem sabe?, vai saber?
• Romanian: cine știe?
• Russian: кто зна́ет? (kto znájet?), кто его́ зна́ет? (kto jevó znájet?), как знать? (kak znatʹ?), чёрт его́ зна́ет! (čort jevó znájet!)
• Scottish Gaelic: cò aig a tha fios?
• Spanish: ¿quién sabe?, ¡quién sabe!, vete tú a saber, vete a saber, andá a saber
• Swedish: vem vet?
• Turkish: kim bilir

rhetorical question: anything is possible

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誰知道？／谁知道？ (zh) (shéi zhīdào)

• Dutch: wie weet?
• Finnish: kukapa tietää
• French: qui sait (fr) ?
• Galician: quen sabe?
• Greek: ποιος ξέρει; (poios xérei?)
• Hebrew: השד יודע
• Hungarian: ki tudja?
• Italian: chissà (it)?, chi può dirlo?
• Japanese: さあ？ (ja) (sā?)
• Macedonian: ко́јзнае (kójznae), кој го знае (koj go znae), кој ќе знае (koj ḱe znae)
• Norwegian: hvem vet?
• Polish: kto wie? (pl)
• Portuguese: quem sabe?, vai saber?
• Romanian: cine știe?
• Russian: кто зна́ет (kto znájet)?, кто его́ зна́ет (kto jevó znájet)?
• Spanish: ¿quién sabe?, ¡quién sabe!
• Turkish: kim bilir?

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} Qui lo sape
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} qui sapit
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} vem vet
• Volapük: ^{(please verify)} kin nolon?

See also

• God knows
• go figure
• who can tell
• who cares
• who knew

 

Anagrams

• knowhows