WildvswinkWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Wild is a noun, wink is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wild” is a noun and “wink” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,629
“Wild” frequency rank
#22,970
“wink” frequency rank
25599
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wild wink
Definition Gesamtheit freilebender, jagdbarer Tiere 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs winken

Where the eye mixes Wild and wink

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Wild
4 ch
wink

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wild is [vɪlt] while wink is [vɪŋk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wild is recorded at frequency rank #2,629, classified as anoun, pronounced [vɪlt]. wink is at rank #22,970, tagged as averb, pronounced [vɪŋk].

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 25599, this pair ranks #1,830,847 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wild vs wink

Shared letters: iw. Private to "Wild": dl. Private to "wink": kn.

"Wild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wink" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wildiwld · widl · wildd · willd · wlid · wwild
  • winkiwnk · wikn · winkk · winnk · wnik · wwink

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wild" and "wink" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wild" is a noun and "wink" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Wild" or "wink"?
"Wild" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,629 in our German list, against #22,970 for "wink". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list