WildvswishWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Wild” and “wish” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,629
“Wild” frequency rank
#28,948
“wish” frequency rank
31577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wild wish
Definition Gesamtheit freilebender, jagdbarer Tiere der Wunsch, das Verlangen

Where the eye mixes Wild and wish

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

4 ch
Wild
4 ch
wish

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. Wild ([vɪlt]) and wish ([wɪʃ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31577, 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]. wish is at rank #28,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wɪʃ].

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 31577, this pair ranks #1,725,309 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wild vs wish

Shared letters: iw. Private to "Wild": dl. Private to "wish": hs.

"Wild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wish" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wildiwld · widl · wildd · willd · wlid · wwild
  • wishiwsh · wihs · wishh · wissh · wsih · wwish

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wild" and "wish" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([vɪlt] versus [wɪʃ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Wild" or "wish"?
"Wild" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,629 in our German list, against #28,948 for "wish". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list