Which to use
“wilder” is an adjective and “wildly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,830
- “wilder” frequency rank
- #11,154
- “wildly” frequency rank
- 27984
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wilder | wildly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | comparative form of wild: more wild | In a wild, uncontrolled manner. |
Where the eye mixes wilder and wildly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wilder (CVCCVC) and wildly (CVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: wilder vs wildly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wilder is /ˈwaɪldə(ɹ)/ while wildly is /ˈwaɪldli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27984, 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)/. wildly is at rank #11,154, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈwaɪldli/.
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 27984, this pair ranks #374,622 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wilder vs wildly
Shared letters: dilw. Private to "wilder": er. Private to "wildly": y.
"wilder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "wildly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wilder" and "wildly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "wilder" or "wildly" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "wilder" and "wildly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wilder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wildly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,622 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wilder" and "wildly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wilder vs Willey". 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 #374,622 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.