Which to use
“kno” is a verb and “known” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,851
- “kno” frequency rank
- #398
- “known” frequency rank
- 49249
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | kno | known |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Informal spelling of know. | Identified as a specific type; famous, renowned. |
Letter map: kno vs known
Shared letters muted; letters that set kno and known apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. kno runs 3 letters (CCV) against known's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for kno / known
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kno is averb and knownanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “kno” sits inside “known”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
kno is recorded at frequency rank #48,851, classified as averb. 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 49249, this pair ranks #185,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of kno vs known
Shared letters: kno. Private to "kno": -. Private to "known": w.
"kno" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- known ← kknown · knnown · knonw · knownn · knowwn · knwon · konwn · nkown
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "kno" and "known" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "kno" vs "known" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "kno" vs "known" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "kno" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "known" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #185,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "kno" and "known" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kno vs Kop". 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 #185,407 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.