Which to use
“wid” is a preposition and “wider” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,993
- “wid” frequency rank
- #4,813
- “wider” frequency rank
- 47806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wid | wider |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronunciation spelling of with. | comparative form of wide: more wide |
Where the eye mixes wid and wider
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wid is /wɪd/ while wider is /ˈwaɪdɚ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “wid” sits inside “wider”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wid is recorded at frequency rank #42,993, classified as aprep, pronounced /wɪd/. wider is at rank #4,813, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwaɪdɚ/.
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 47806, this pair ranks #199,036 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wid vs wider
Shared letters: diw. Private to "wid": -. Private to "wider": er.
"wid" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "wider" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- wider ← iwder · wdier · widder · widerr · widre · wiedr · wwider