Which to use
“knowing” is an adjective and “knowingly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,794
- “knowing” frequency rank
- #14,980
- “knowingly” frequency rank
- 16774
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | knowing | knowingly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Possessing knowledge or understanding; knowledgeable, intelligent. | In the manner of one who knows. |
Letter map: knowing vs knowingly
Shared letters muted; letters that set knowing and knowingly apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Grammar separator: knowing vs knowingly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: knowing is anadjective and knowinglyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “knowing” sits inside “knowingly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
knowing is recorded at frequency rank #1,794, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈnəʊɪŋ/. knowingly is at rank #14,980, tagged as anadv.
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 16774, this pair ranks #455,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of knowing vs knowingly
Shared letters: giknow. Private to "knowing": -. Private to "knowingly": ly.
"knowing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC · "knowingly" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "knowing" and "knowingly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "knowing" or "knowingly" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "knowing" and "knowingly".
- Full dictionary entry for "knowing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "knowingly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #455,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "knowing" and "knowingly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "knocking vs knowing". 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 #455,650 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.