Which to use
“wide” is an adjective and “wire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,177
- “wide” frequency rank
- #3,460
- “wire” frequency rank
- 4637
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wide | wire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a large physical extent from side to side. | Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. |
Where the eye mixes wide and wire
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 wire is /waɪə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “wide” becomes r in “wire”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4637, 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/. wire is at rank #3,460, tagged as anoun, pronounced /waɪə(ɹ)/.
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 4637, this pair ranks #518,231 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wide vs wire
Shared letters: eiw. Private to "wide": d. Private to "wire": r.
"wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "wire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV