"beats me" meaning in All languages combined

See beats me on Wiktionary

Phrase [English]

Audio: en-au-beats me.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: A shortening of it beats me Head templates: {{en-head|phr|head=~beat􂀿s􂁀}} beats me
  1. (idiomatic, as response or with indirect question) I don't know; I have no idea. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: search me Translations (I have no idea): bo ja wiem (Polish), sei lá (Portuguese), vem vet (Swedish), säg det (Swedish)
{
  "etymology_links": [
    [
      "it",
      "it"
    ],
    [
      "beat",
      "beat#Verb"
    ],
    [
      "me",
      "me"
    ]
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A shortening of it beats me",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr",
        "head": "~beat􂀿s􂁀"
      },
      "expansion": "beats me",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pro-sentences",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English responses",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              48,
              56
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Do you have any idea what \"tergiversate\" means? Beats me!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              8
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Beats me how he finds out when we're goofing off.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:",
          "text": "\"Flowering shrubs don't thrive in the subterranean caverns from which geysers spring,\" suggested Bradley. Olson shook his head. \"It beats me,\" he said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "I don't know; I have no idea."
      ],
      "id": "en-beats_me-en-phrase-IWaPyS4h",
      "links": [
        [
          "don't",
          "don't"
        ],
        [
          "know",
          "know"
        ],
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, as response or with indirect question) I don't know; I have no idea."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "as response or with indirect question"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "search me"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "I have no idea",
          "word": "bo ja wiem"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "lang_code": "pt",
          "sense": "I have no idea",
          "word": "sei lá"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "lang_code": "sv",
          "sense": "I have no idea",
          "word": "vem vet"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "lang_code": "sv",
          "sense": "I have no idea",
          "word": "säg det"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-beats me.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bd/En-au-beats_me.ogg/En-au-beats_me.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/En-au-beats_me.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "beats me"
}
{
  "etymology_links": [
    [
      "it",
      "it"
    ],
    [
      "beat",
      "beat#Verb"
    ],
    [
      "me",
      "me"
    ]
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A shortening of it beats me",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr",
        "head": "~beat􂀿s􂁀"
      },
      "expansion": "beats me",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English ellipses",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English pro-sentences",
        "English responses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Portuguese translations",
        "Terms with Swedish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              48,
              56
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Do you have any idea what \"tergiversate\" means? Beats me!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              8
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Beats me how he finds out when we're goofing off.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:",
          "text": "\"Flowering shrubs don't thrive in the subterranean caverns from which geysers spring,\" suggested Bradley. Olson shook his head. \"It beats me,\" he said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "I don't know; I have no idea."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "don't",
          "don't"
        ],
        [
          "know",
          "know"
        ],
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, as response or with indirect question) I don't know; I have no idea."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "as response or with indirect question"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-beats me.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bd/En-au-beats_me.ogg/En-au-beats_me.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/En-au-beats_me.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "search me"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "I have no idea",
      "word": "bo ja wiem"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "I have no idea",
      "word": "sei lá"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "lang_code": "sv",
      "sense": "I have no idea",
      "word": "vem vet"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "lang_code": "sv",
      "sense": "I have no idea",
      "word": "säg det"
    }
  ],
  "word": "beats me"
}

Download raw JSONL data for beats me meaning in All languages combined (2.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-10-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (1a05e46 and e3d6d4e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.