knowest

Knowest is the archaic second-person singular present indicative form of the verb know in Early Modern English. It is used with the pronoun thou and corresponds to the modern you know. In this conjugation, the suffix -est marks the second-person singular, as in thou knowest, while the third-person form is knoweth (he knoweth). The form appears in Shakespeare’s plays, the King James Bible, and other texts from roughly the 15th to 17th centuries. In contemporary English, thou and its verb endings are largely obsolete outside stylized or religious contexts.

Etymology and historical context: The verb know derives from Old English cnawan. The thou-conjugation endings, including -est, developed in Middle English and became standard in Early Modern English for verbs used with thou. Knowest is a representative example of that spelling pattern, though orthography varied in early print and manuscript traditions.

Usage and modern perspective: Today knowest is rarely used outside historical, literary, or typographically archaic contexts. It is typically replaced by you know in direct address or by know in many other constructions. Spelling variants include contractions such as know’st in the manuscripts and early prints, a shortened form of knowest.

Example usage: Thou knowest that this is so. In modern rendering, this would be you know that this is so. The term is primarily of interest for linguistic history, philology, and readers encountering Early Modern English in literature or religious texts.