Which to use
“wide” is an adjective and “wife” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,177
- “wide” frequency rank
- #601
- “wife” frequency rank
- 1778
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wide | wife |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a large physical extent from side to side. | A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse. |
Where the eye mixes wide and wife
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: wide is /waɪd/ while wife is /wæf/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “wide” becomes f in “wife”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1778, 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/. wife is at rank #601, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wæf/.
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 1778, this pair ranks #526,676 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wide vs wife
Shared letters: eiw. Private to "wide": d. Private to "wife": f.
"wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "wife" · 4 letters · shape CVCV