widvswindWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#42,993
“wid” frequency rank
#1,547
“wind” frequency rank
44540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wid wind
Definition Pronunciation spelling of with. Real or perceived movement of atmospheric air usually caused by convection or differences in air pressure.

Where the eye mixes wid and wind

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
wid
4 ch
wind

Why the eye confuses wid with wind

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wid is /wɪd/ while wind is /ˈwɪnd/. 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 (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44540, 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/. wind is at rank #1,547, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪnd/.

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 44540, this pair ranks #229,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wid vs wind

Shared letters: diw. Private to "wid": -. Private to "wind": n.

"wid" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "wind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • windiwnd · widn · windd · winnd · wnid · wwind

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wid" and "wind" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wid" is a preposition and "wind" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "wid" or "wind" show up more?
"wind" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,547 in our English list, against #42,993 for "wid". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "wid" and "wind" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wind" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wid" and "wind" 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 #229,575 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