Phrase guide

the more you know

phrase · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

phrase

Meaning 1

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: humorous, often

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

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.

Across languages

Translations

2 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Italian: guarda te — Translations
  • Spanish: cuanto / mientras más sabés — Translations