"a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" meaning in English

See a little knowledge is a dangerous thing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: A slight misquotation of Alexander Pope’s a little learning is a dangerous thing. The earliest use dates from a magazine published in 1774. Etymology templates: {{m|en|a little learning is a dangerous thing}} a little learning is a dangerous thing Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, {{en-proverb}} a little knowledge is a dangerous thing
  1. A small amount of knowledge can mislead individuals into believing that they are more experienced and expert than what is actually the case. Synonyms: a little learning is a dangerous thing Related terms: Dunning-Kruger effect, unknown unknown, zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse
    Sense id: en-a_little_knowledge_is_a_dangerous_thing-en-proverb-av2~Clr1 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for a little knowledge is a dangerous thing meaning in English (1.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "a little learning is a dangerous thing"
      },
      "expansion": "a little learning is a dangerous thing",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A slight misquotation of Alexander Pope’s a little learning is a dangerous thing. The earliest use dates from a magazine published in 1774.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1926, Francis Blake Atkinson, Hallam Hawksworth, A Year in the Wonderland of Trees, page 176",
          "text": "Of course anybody can saw off a limb; but here, as so often happens, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and a little more will often save a dear old friend of the family and the neighborhood.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small amount of knowledge can mislead individuals into believing that they are more experienced and expert than what is actually the case."
      ],
      "id": "en-a_little_knowledge_is_a_dangerous_thing-en-proverb-av2~Clr1",
      "links": [
        [
          "amount",
          "amount"
        ],
        [
          "knowledge",
          "knowledge"
        ],
        [
          "individual",
          "individual"
        ],
        [
          "experienced",
          "experienced"
        ],
        [
          "expert",
          "expert"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "Dunning-Kruger effect"
        },
        {
          "word": "unknown unknown"
        },
        {
          "word": "zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "a little learning is a dangerous thing"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "a little learning is a dangerous thing"
      },
      "expansion": "a little learning is a dangerous thing",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A slight misquotation of Alexander Pope’s a little learning is a dangerous thing. The earliest use dates from a magazine published in 1774.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "Dunning-Kruger effect"
    },
    {
      "word": "unknown unknown"
    },
    {
      "word": "zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1926, Francis Blake Atkinson, Hallam Hawksworth, A Year in the Wonderland of Trees, page 176",
          "text": "Of course anybody can saw off a limb; but here, as so often happens, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and a little more will often save a dear old friend of the family and the neighborhood.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small amount of knowledge can mislead individuals into believing that they are more experienced and expert than what is actually the case."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "amount",
          "amount"
        ],
        [
          "knowledge",
          "knowledge"
        ],
        [
          "individual",
          "individual"
        ],
        [
          "experienced",
          "experienced"
        ],
        [
          "expert",
          "expert"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "a little learning is a dangerous thing"
    }
  ],
  "word": "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (fc4f0c7 and c937495). 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.