wildervswildestWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“wilder” and “wildest” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,830
“wilder” frequency rank
#21,424
“wildest” frequency rank
38254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wilder wildest
Definition comparative form of wild: more wild superlative form of wild: most wild

Letter map: wilder vs wildest

Shared letters muted; letters that set wilder and wildest apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. wilder runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against wildest's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
wilder
7 ch
wildest

Pair insight - wilder / wildest

wilder and wildest 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 38254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wilder is recorded at frequency rank #16,830, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈwaɪldə(ɹ)/. wildest is at rank #21,424, tagged as anadj.

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 38254, this pair ranks #287,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wilder vs wildest

Shared letters: deilw. Private to "wilder": r. Private to "wildest": st.

"wilder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wildest" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wilder ← iwlder · widler · wildder · wilderr · wildre · wiledr · willder · wlider
  • wildest ← iwldest · widlest · wilddest · wildesst · wildestt · wildets · wildset · wiledst

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wilder" and "wildest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "wilder" vs "wildest" - which ranks higher?
"wilder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,830 in our English list, against #21,424 for "wildest". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "wilder" vs "wildest" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wilder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wildest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wilder" and "wildest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wildest vs Willett". 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 #287,569 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list