WORD CHOICE: ignore, be ignorant of, not know If you ignore something, you know about it or have seen or heard it, but deliberately do not take notice of it • We cannot ignore the problem. !! Do not use ignore to mean 'not know about something'. Use not know instead • We don't know how famous people live their lives (NOT We ignore how famous people live their lives). You can also say that you are ignorant of something, especially when you should know about it • They seem to be ignorant of the dangers involved.