wellsvswildsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“wells” and “wilds” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,727
“wells” frequency rank
#33,088
“wilds” frequency rank
37815
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wells wilds
Definition plural of well plural of wild

Letter map: wells vs wilds

Shared letters muted; letters that set wells and wilds apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
wells
5 ch
wilds

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

wells and wilds are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37815, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wells is recorded at frequency rank #4,727, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɛlz/. wilds is at rank #33,088, tagged as anoun.

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 37815, this pair ranks #291,269 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wells vs wilds

Shared letters: lsw. Private to "wells": e. Private to "wilds": di.

"wells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "wilds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wellsewlls · wellss · wels · welsl · wlels · wwells
  • wildsiwlds · widls · wildds · wildss · willds · wilsd · wlids · wwilds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wells" and "wilds" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "wells" or "wilds"?
"wells" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,727 in our English list, against #33,088 for "wilds". 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