The difference between "known as"&"known to be"

[YuyangL76]

Could anyone explain the difference between "known as"&"known to be"? I am a little confused about that.

[tim]

The artist formerly known AS Prince was known TO BE provocative. "known as" indicates an alias or nickname, whereas "known to be" indicates a characteristic.

[RonPurewal]

The artist formerly known AS Prince was known TO BE provocative. "known as" indicates an alias or nickname, whereas "known to be" indicates a characteristic.

^^ These are probably the most common uses. But (as with almost any common construction) there are others.

For instance, "___ known as X" can also mean that X is the most common conception (in the minds of random people) of "___".
Though Charles Ives was best known as a creative insurance professional who revolutionized estate planning, he was also a prolific composer of orchestral music.
––> Most people classified Ives as an insurance guy. Fewer people knew that he wrote music.

[RonPurewal]

Just to be more explicit——

In the last post, my point isn't really "Here's another meaning you should know" (although it won't hurt to know that meaning, of course).

My real point is this:
ALWAYS include a specific GMAT-related context for questions like this one.

Without such a context, there are at least three negatives:
1/ The full scope of the answer will almost always be too broad for a forum post.
2/ Very little of that broad scope will have any relation to the GMAT.
3/ If you want a general discussion of some idiom (or some grammatical construction, or whatever), you're better off typing it into Google and reading the results. The primary value of this forum is to address questions about specific GMAT-related items.

With all that said, I'm going to lock this thread, since Tim and I seem to have answered the question amply. If you have an actual GMAT item in which you've seen this difference, then go ahead and post another thread (in the appropriate folder).

Thanks.

[RaffaeleM39]

I believe this difference is highlighted in MH GMAT SC book, at chapter 2. No examples are provided (and no real GMAT questions)

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Thanks for pointing that out. We encourage students asking questions to provide a context. In our strategy guides we show the important rules and topics that we've inferred from a close study of GMAT problems, although we don't provide real GMAT problems for every example (it would be both cumbersome and difficult with copyright to do so).