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? She might pull a Homer and actually pass; I doubt it though.

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

See also

• God knows
• who cares

Translations

a rhetorical question asked to show that the asker neither knows the answer nor who might know it

• Arabic: من يدري؟ (man yadri?), الله أعلم (allaahu 'á3lam), إبصر ('ibSar)
• Chinese:

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

• Finnish: Kukapa tietää?
• French: qui sait ? (fr)
• German: wer weiß?
• Greek: ποιος ξέρει; (poios xérei?)
• Icelandic: hver veit?
• Italian: chissà? (it)
• Japanese: 誰が知っているのか？ (dare-ga shitte iru no ka?)

• Macedonian: којзнае (kójznae), кој го знае (koj go znáe), кој ќе знае (koj ḱe znáe)
• Norwegian: hvem vet?
• Polish: kto wie?
• Portuguese: quem sabe?
• Russian: кто знает? (kto znájet), кто его знает? (kto jevó znájet), как знать? (kak znat'?)
• Spanish: ¿quién sabe?, ¡quién sabe!
• Swedish: vem vet?
• Turkish: kim bilir

asked to express the idea that anything is possible

• Chinese:

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

• Finnish: Kukapa tietää?
• French: qui sait (fr) ?
• Greek: ποιος ξέρει; (poios xérei?)
• Macedonian: којзнае (kójznae), кој го знае (koj go znáe), кој ќе знае (koj ḱe znáe)

• Norwegian: hvem vet?
• Polish: kto wie?
• Portuguese: quem sabe?
• Russian: кто знает (kto znájet)?, кто его знает (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, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: wie zal het zeggen?, wie weet het?
• Interlingua: Qui lo sape?

• Italian: chissà?
• Latin: qui sapit?
• Portuguese: quem sabe?, vai saber?
• Swedish: vem vet?
• Volapük: kin nolon?