KnottvsknowsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#46,575
“Knott” frequency rank
#906
“knows” frequency rank
47481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Knott knows
Definition A surname transferred from the given name. third-person singular simple present indicative of know

Letter map: Knott vs knows

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

5 ch
Knott
5 ch
knows

Part-of-speech tell for Knott / knows

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Knott is aname and knowsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Knott is recorded at frequency rank #46,575, classified as aname. knows is at rank #906, tagged as averb, pronounced /nəʊz/.

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 47481, this pair ranks #202,032 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Knott vs knows

Shared letters: kno. Private to "Knott": t. Private to "knows": sw.

"Knott" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "knows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Knottkknott · knnott · kntot · kontt · nkott
  • knowskknows · knnows · knosw · knowss · knowws · knwos · konws · nkows

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Knott" and "knows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Knott" is a name and "knows" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Knott" vs "knows" - which ranks higher?
"knows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #906 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Knott" and "knows".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Knott" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "knows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,032 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Knott" and "knows" 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 #202,032 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