Which to use
“wide” is an adjective and “wipe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,177
- “wide” frequency rank
- #7,086
- “wipe” frequency rank
- 8263
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wide | wipe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a large physical extent from side to side. | To move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (Compare rub.) |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wide and wipe apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
wide and wipe form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by a single letter - d in “wide” becomes p in “wipe” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8263, 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/. wipe is at rank #7,086, tagged as averb, pronounced /waɪp/.
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 8263, this pair ranks #503,362 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wide" and "wipe" be used interchangeably?
Remembering wide vs wipe
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “wide”; for a verb, it's “wipe”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wide” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable