Which to use
“knew” is a verb and “known” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #635
- “knew” frequency rank
- #398
- “known” frequency rank
- 1033
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | knew | known |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of know | Identified as a specific type; famous, renowned. |
Where the eye mixes knew and known
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: knew is /ˈnjuː/ while known is /nəʊn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
knew is recorded at frequency rank #635, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈnjuː/. known is at rank #398, tagged as anadj, pronounced /nəʊn/.
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 1033, this pair ranks #528,253 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of knew vs known
Shared letters: knw. Private to "knew": e. Private to "known": o.
"knew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC