Which to use
“known” is an adjective and “knows” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #398
- “known” frequency rank
- #906
- “knows” frequency rank
- 1304
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | known | knows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Identified as a specific type; famous, renowned. | third-person singular simple present indicative of know |
Where the eye mixes known and knows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between known and knows
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: known is /nəʊn/ while knows is /nəʊz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “known” becomes s in “knows”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
known is recorded at frequency rank #398, classified as anadj, pronounced /nəʊn/. 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 1304, this pair ranks #527,686 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of known vs knows
Shared letters: know. Private to "known": -. Private to "knows": s.
"known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "knows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "known" for "knows" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "known" or "knows" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "known" and "knows" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "known" 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 #527,686 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "known" and "knows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kno vs knows". 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 #527,686 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.