KnottvsknowWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,575
“Knott” frequency rank
#84
“know” frequency rank
46659
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Knott know
Definition A surname transferred from the given name. To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.

Letter map: Knott vs know

Shared letters muted; letters that set Knott and know apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Knott
4 ch
know

Part-of-speech tell for Knott / know

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Knott is aname and knowaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46659, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Knott is recorded at frequency rank #46,575, classified as aname. 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 46659, this pair ranks #209,658 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Knott vs know

Shared letters: kno. Private to "Knott": t. Private to "know": w.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Knottkknott · knnott · kntot · kontt · nkott
  • knowkknow · knnow · knoww · knwo · konw · nkow

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Knott" and "know" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Knott" is a name and "know" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Knott" or "know" show up more?
"know" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #84 in our English list, against #46,575 for "Knott". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "Knott" vs "know" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Knott" 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 #209,658 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Knott" and "know" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kno 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 #209,658 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