Which to use
“widen” is a verb and “widest” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,113
- “widen” frequency rank
- #21,114
- “widest” frequency rank
- 42227
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | widen | widest |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To become wide or wider. | superlative form of wide: most wide |
Where the eye mixes widen and widest
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. widen runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against widest's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between widen and widest
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: widen is /ˈwaɪdn̩/ while widest is /ˈwaɪdəst/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42227, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
widen is recorded at frequency rank #21,113, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈwaɪdn̩/. widest is at rank #21,114, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwaɪdəst/.
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 42227, this pair ranks #251,149 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of widen vs widest
Shared letters: deiw. Private to "widen": n. Private to "widest": st.
"widen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "widest" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "widen" and "widest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "widen" or "widest"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "widen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "widest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #251,149 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "widen" and "widest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "widen vs wile". 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 #251,149 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.