Which to use
“wide” and “wider” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,177
- “wide” frequency rank
- #4,813
- “wider” frequency rank
- 5990
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wide | wider |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a large physical extent from side to side. | comparative form of wide: more wide |
Where the eye mixes wide and wider
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. wide (/waɪd/) and wider (/ˈwaɪdɚ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “wide” sits inside “wider”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wide is recorded at frequency rank #1,177, classified as anadj, pronounced /waɪd/. 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 5990, this pair ranks #513,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wide vs wider
Shared letters: deiw. Private to "wide": -. Private to "wider": r.
"wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "wider" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC