wildevsWindesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wilde is a adjective, Windes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wilde” is an adjective and “Windes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,668
“wilde” frequency rank
#36,738
“Windes” frequency rank
41406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wilde Windes
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs wild Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Wind

Where the eye mixes wilde and Windes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
wilde
6 ch
Windes

Look-alike desk: wilde vs Windes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wilde is [ˈvɪldə] while Windes is [ˈvɪndəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wilde is recorded at frequency rank #4,668, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɪldə]. Windes is at rank #36,738, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɪndəs].

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 41406, this pair ranks #1,480,416 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wilde vs Windes

Shared letters: deiw. Private to "wilde": l. Private to "Windes": ns.

"wilde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Windes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wildeiwlde · widle · wildde · wiled · willde · wlide · wwilde
  • Windesiwndes · widnes · winddes · windess · windse · wineds · winndes · wnides

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wilde" and "Windes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wilde" is an adjective and "Windes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "wilde" or "Windes" show up more?
"wilde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,668 in our German list, against #36,738 for "Windes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wilde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Windes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,480,416 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wilde" and "Windes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Windes vs wirres". 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 #1,480,416 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list