KnottvsknownWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Knott is a name, known is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#46,575
“Knott” frequency rank
#398
“known” frequency rank
46973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Knott known
Definition A surname transferred from the given name. Identified as a specific type; famous, renowned.

Letter map: Knott vs known

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

5 ch
Knott
5 ch
known

Grammar separator: Knott vs known

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Knott is aname and knownanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Knott is recorded at frequency rank #46,575, classified as aname. 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 46973, this pair ranks #206,770 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Knott vs known

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

"Knott" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Knottkknott · knnott · kntot · kontt · nkott
  • knownkknown · knnown · knonw · knownn · knowwn · knwon · konwn · nkown

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Knott" and "known" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Knott" is a name and "known" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Knott" or "known"?
"known" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #398 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 "known" 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 "known" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,770 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Knott" and "known" 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 #206,770 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