know
/nəʊ/verb, noun, particle
know is spelled K-N-O-W. The wrong spelling people search most is kwno: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 57 of all searches for the word. Know is a verb meaning “To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that”.
How many letters and syllables are in know?
| Letters | 4: K-N-O-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1,259 times per million words; the 87th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 5; the most searched, kwno, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell know?
Know is spelled K-N-O-W. 5 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 24 of the searches for know in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is know?
Know appears 1,259 times per million words in written English, the 87th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce know?
- UK /nəʊ/
- /no/
- /nou/
As a particle (“Used at the end of a sentence to draw attention to…”): /noʊ/, [noː˨˦], [ˈno(˧˨)].
Know has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-to_know.ogg, En-us-know.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with know
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: no, noh (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with know?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as know from its last stressed vowel (/əʊ/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: wonk.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of know
- knows present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- knowing participle, present
- knew past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- known participle, past
- knaa
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does know mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.
I know that I’m right and you’re wrong.
- 2
To be or become aware or cognizant.
Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.
- 3
To be aware of; to be cognizant of.
Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.
- 4
obsoleteTo be acquainted (with another person).
- 5
To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.
I know your mother, but I've never met your father.
- 6
archaicTo have sexual relations with. This meaning normally specified in modern English as e.g. to ‘know someone in the biblical sense’ or to ‘know biblically’.
- 7
To experience.
Their relationship knew ups and downs.
- 8
To understand or have a grasp of through experience or study.
Let me do it. I know how it works.
noun
- 1
rareKnowledge; the state of knowing.
- 2
Knowledge; the state of knowing. (Now confined to the fixed phrase in the know.)
- 3
Alternative form of knowe (“hill, knoll”).
particle
- 1
Used at the end of a sentence to draw attention to information one thinks the listener should keep in mind.
Make sure you water the plants, know…
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Know in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | savoir , connaître, connaitre |
| German | wissen, wüsse, wissn , kennen |
| Portuguese | saber , conhecer , entender de, saber de |
| Spanish | saber , conocer, cognocer (desus.) , saber quién es, saber qué es |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does know come from?
From Middle English knowen, from Old English cnāwan (“to know, perceive, recognise”), from Proto-West Germanic *knāan, from Proto-Germanic *knēaną (“to know”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).