widvswildsTell them apart

Quick tell: wid is a preposition, wilds is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wid” is a preposition and “wilds” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,993
“wid” frequency rank
#33,088
“wilds” frequency rank
76081
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wid wilds
Definition Pronunciation spelling of with. plural of wild

Letter map: wid vs wilds

Shared letters muted; letters that set wid and wilds apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. wid runs 3 letters (CVC) against wilds's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
wid
5 ch
wilds

Role in the sentence - wid and wilds

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wid is apreposition and wildsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76081, 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/. 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 76081, this pair ranks #31,129 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wid vs wilds

Shared letters: diw. Private to "wid": -. Private to "wilds": ls.

"wid" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "wilds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wilds ← iwlds · widls · wildds · wildss · willds · wilsd · wlids · wwilds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wid" and "wilds" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wid" is a preposition and "wilds" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wid" or "wilds"?
"wilds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,088 in our English list, against #42,993 for "wid". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "wid" vs "wilds" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wilds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,129 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wid" and "wilds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wid vs WYO". 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 #31,129 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list