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noun

know-how

the (technical) knowledge and skill required to do something

In a sentence

Six example sentences with know-how, each labelled with its topic.

  • The recipe card lists every ingredient, but the know-how for folding the dough lives only in her grandmother's hands.

    Cooking

  • Two founders had capital and a factory but no know-how, so their first thousand circuit boards came out unusable.

    Startups

  • Anyone can buy the same lens; the know-how to light a rainy street at dusk takes years to build.

    Photography

  • The old mainframe still runs because one engineer has the know-how to read its logs, and she retires next spring.

    Technology

  • Tuning a harpsichord takes know-how no manual provides: you learn by ear, over years, which strings drift first in damp weather.

    Music

  • The cathedral's repairs stalled because the know-how for cutting the vault stones had died with the last master mason.

    Architecture

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Found in these word lists

Each source is a published word list that contains know-how. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.