Which to use
“knee” is a noun and “know” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,098
- “knee” frequency rank
- #84
- “know” frequency rank
- 4182
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | knee | know |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In humans, the joint or the region of the joint in the middle part of the leg between the thigh and the shank. | To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that. |
Where the eye mixes knee and know
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between knee and know
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: knee is /niː/ while know is /nəʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
knee is recorded at frequency rank #4,098, classified as anoun, pronounced /niː/. know is at rank #84, tagged as averb, pronounced /nəʊ/.
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 4182, this pair ranks #519,735 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of knee vs know
Shared letters: kn. Private to "knee": e. Private to "know": ow.
"knee" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "know" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "knee" for "know" ever safe?
Frequency check: "knee" vs "know" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "knee" and "know" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "knee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "know" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #519,735 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "knee" and "know" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "knee vs kno". 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 #519,735 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.