knollvsknowWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32,887
“knoll” frequency rank
#84
“know” frequency rank
32971
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature knoll know
Definition A small mound or rounded hill. To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.

Where the eye mixes knoll and know

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
knoll
4 ch
know

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: knoll is /nəʊl/ while know is /nəʊ/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

knoll is recorded at frequency rank #32,887, classified as anoun, pronounced /nəʊl/. 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 32971, this pair ranks #333,363 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of knoll vs know

Shared letters: kno. Private to "knoll": l. Private to "know": w.

"knoll" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "know" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • knollkknoll · knlol · knnoll · knol · konll · nkoll
  • knowkknow · knnow · knoww · knwo · konw · nkow

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "knoll" and "know" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "knoll" is a noun and "know" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "knoll" or "know"?
"know" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #84 in our English list, against #32,887 for "knoll". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list