knownvsworkingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,645
“known” frequency rank
#19,089
“working” frequency rank
59734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature known working
Definition Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs know Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs work

Letter map: known vs working

Shared letters muted; letters that set known and working apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. known runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against working's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
known
7 ch
working

Pair insight - known / working

known and working 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

known is recorded at frequency rank #40,645, classified as averb, pronounced […]. working is at rank #19,089, 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 59734, this pair ranks #813,392 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of known vs working

Shared letters: know. Private to "known": -. Private to "working": gir.

"known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "working" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • knownkknown · knnown · knonw · knownn · knowwn · knwon · konwn · nkown
  • workingowrking · wokring · worikng · workign · workingg · workinng · workking · worknig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "known" for "working" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 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 "working" - which ranks higher?
"working" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,089 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "known" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "working" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #813,392 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "known" and "working" 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 #813,392 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