Which to use
“widen” and “winded” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,113
- “widen” frequency rank
- #34,351
- “winded” frequency rank
- 55464
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | widen | winded |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To become wide or wider. | simple past and past participle of wind |
Letter map: widen vs winded
Shared letters muted; letters that set widen and winded apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. widen runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against winded's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: widen and winded
widen and winded are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55464, 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/. winded is at rank #34,351, tagged as averb.
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 55464, this pair ranks #133,441 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of widen vs winded
Shared letters: deinw. Private to "widen": -. Private to "winded": -.
"widen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "winded" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "widen" for "winded" ever safe?
Frequency check: "widen" vs "winded" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "widen" and "winded". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "widen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "winded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #133,441 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "widen" and "winded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whined vs winded". 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 #133,441 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.