knownvsuserTell them apart

Quick tell: known is a verb, user is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“known” is a verb and “user” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,645
“known” frequency rank
#2,693
“user” frequency rank
43338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature known user
Definition Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs know Benutzer

Letter map: known vs user

Shared letters muted; letters that set known and user apart highlighted. No shared letter run.

5 ch
known
4 ch
user

Grammar separator: known vs user

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: known is averb and useranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

known is recorded at frequency rank #40,645, classified as averb, pronounced […]. user is at rank #2,693, tagged as anoun, 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 43338, this pair ranks #1,421,208 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of known vs user

Shared letters: none. Private to "known": know. Private to "user": ersu.

"known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "user" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • knownkknown · knnown · knonw · knownn · knowwn · knwon · konwn · nkown
  • usersuer · uesr · userr · usre · usser

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "known" and "user" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "known" is a verb and "user" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "known" or "user" show up more?
"user" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,693 in our German list, against #40,645 for "known". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "known" and "user".

  • Full dictionary entry for "known" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "user" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,421,208 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "known" and "user" 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 #1,421,208 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