knightsvsknitsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,585
“knights” frequency rank
#47,146
“knits” frequency rank
53731
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature knights knits
Definition plural of knight third-person singular simple present indicative of knit

Where the eye mixes knights and knits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
knights
5 ch
knits

Look-alike desk: knights vs knits

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: knights is /naɪts/ while knits is /nɪts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

knights is recorded at frequency rank #6,585, classified as anoun, pronounced /naɪts/. knits is at rank #47,146, tagged as averb, pronounced /nɪts/.

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 53731, this pair ranks #146,647 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of knights vs knits

Shared letters: iknst. Private to "knights": gh. Private to "knits": -.

"knights" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCC  ·  "knits" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • knightskinghts · kknights · kngihts · knigghts · knighhts · knighst · knightss · knightts
  • knitskints · kknits · knist · knitss · knitts · knnits · kntis · nkits

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "knights" and "knits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "knights" is a noun and "knits" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "knights" or "knits" show up more?
"knights" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,585 in our English list, against #47,146 for "knits". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "knights" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "knits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,647 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "knights" and "knits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "knits vs Knott". 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 #146,647 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list