knownvsneosTell them apart

Which to use

“known” and “neos” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,645
“known” frequency rank
#13,662
“neos” frequency rank
54307
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature known neos
Definition Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs know Indikativ Futur Aktiv des Verbs nei

Letter map: known vs neos

Shared letters muted; letters that set known and neos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. known runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against neos's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
known
4 ch
neos

Corpus notes: known and neos

known and neos are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54307, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

known is recorded at frequency rank #40,645, classified as averb, pronounced […]. neos is at rank #13,662, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 54307, this pair ranks #1,023,951 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of known vs neos

Shared letters: no. Private to "known": kw. Private to "neos": es.

"known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "neos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • knownkknown · knnown · knonw · knownn · knowwn · knwon · konwn · nkown
  • neosenos · neoss · neso · nneos · noes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "known" and "neos" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "known" vs "neos" - which ranks higher?
"neos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,662 in our German list, against #40,645 for "known". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "known" vs "neos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "known" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "neos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,023,951 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "known" and "neos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "known vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,023,951 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list