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Wi-fi or wifi?

wi-fi is a noun meaning “Any of several standards for short-range wireless data transmission (IEEE…”; wifi is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of Wi-Fi”. wi-fi is written with a hyphen and wifi as one word; they are used differently.

wi-fiorwifi

What is the difference between wi-fi and wifi?

wi-fiwifi
Part of speechnoun, verbnoun, verb
Meaning

Any of several standards for short-range wireless data transmission (IEEE 802.11)

Wireless networking using one of these standards

To equip with Wi-Fi; to Wi-Fi enable

Alternative spelling of Wi-Fi

Alternative form of Wi-Fi

ExampleMimi gave Fifi access to her Wi-Finone recorded
FormsWi-Fiswifis
Pronunciation/ˈwaɪ.faɪ/ /ˈwaɪ.paɪ/not recorded
In writingnot counted (the list counts single words)8.7 times per million words

Sources: wi-fi and wifi in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of wi-fi and wifi

wi-fi

  1. 1

    noun Any of several standards for short-range wireless data transmission (IEEE 802.11)

  2. 2

    verb To equip with Wi-Fi; to Wi-Fi enable

  3. 3

    noun Alternative spelling of Wi-Fi

  4. 4

    noun Wireless networking using one of these standards

    Mimi gave Fifi access to her Wi-Fi

  5. 5

    verb To connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi

  6. 6

    noun informalThe capability to connect to a Wi-Fi network

    The refrigerator cost 1000 more dollars just because it had Wi-Fi, and I'm thinking "this is ridiculous"!

  7. 7

    noun A Wi-Fi network

wifi

  1. 1

    noun Alternative spelling of Wi-Fi

  2. 2

    verb Alternative form of Wi-Fi

  3. 3

    noun Alternative form of Wi-Fi

  4. 4

    verb Alternative form of Wi-Fi

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, wi-fi or wifi?

wi-fi is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; wifi 8.7 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How many people search wi-fi vs wifi?

“wi-fi vs wifi” is searched about 140 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“wifi vs wi-fi”, “wi-fi or wifi”).

Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.

The words