little-known

little-known — adjective

1. not known or noticed by most people; describing a person, place, or fact that re

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

not known or noticed by most people; describing a person, place, or fact that remains outside general public awareness.

Example

The little-known island of Yap has a unique culture that few tourists ever visit.

attributive: little-known + noun (place name)

A little-known fact about tomatoes is that they were once thought to be poisonous.

collocation: little-known fact + that-clause

Common collocations
  • little-known fact
  • little-known island
  • little-known artist
  • little-known band
  • little-known law
  • little-known village
  • little-known gem
  • little-known author
  • little-known poet
  • little-known restaurant
Synonyms
  • obscure

    often implies the thing is hard to find or understand, not simply known by few

  • lesser-known

    comparative tone — suggests it is less known than others of the same type

  • unfamiliar

    broader; can mean simply not recognized, not necessarily obscure to everyone

Antonyms
  • well-known

    direct opposite — known by many people

  • famous

    stronger — implies widespread recognition and often acclaim

Grammar Patterns

little-known + noun

Usage Note

Used primarily before a noun (attributive position). Predicative use (e.g., 'this town is little-known') occurs in informal writing but is less widely accepted.

Common Mistakes

This is a little known restaurant.
This is a little-known restaurant.
When placed before a noun, the compound adjective needs a hyphen to show it acts as a single unit.
The artist is completely little-known in her own country.
The artist is completely unknown in her own country.
For an absolute state (nobody knows), use unknown rather than little-known, which implies a few people do know.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Little-known simply means that only a small number of people are aware of something — it carries no judgment about the thing's quality or accessibility. Obscure suggests the subject is hard to find or understand, not just lightly known (an obscure poem may be dense and allusive). Lesser-known is comparative — it implies the thing is less famous than others of its kind, without saying whether it's truly obscure. Unfamiliar shifts focus to the reader's personal recognition: a dish may be unfamiliar to one person but well-known in its home country. Unknown is the absolute — nobody has heard of it at all, whereas little-known allows that a few people do know it. For example, 'a little-known Italian restaurant' means few have heard of it; 'an obscure Italian restaurant' suggests it is hard to locate or off the beaten track; 'an unknown Italian restaurant' would imply no one knows it exists.

obscure ↗lesser-knownunfamiliar ↗unknown ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • little-known gem of a place
  • little-known piece of history
  • little-known corner of the world

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Formed by combining the adjective 'little' (from Old English lȳtel, small in amount) with the past participle 'known' (from Old English cnāwan, to know). The compound came into use in the 1700s to describe things that only a few people were aware of.