wildervswildsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wilder is a adjective, wilds is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wilder” is an adjective and “wilds” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,830
“wilder” frequency rank
#33,088
“wilds” frequency rank
49918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wilder wilds
Definition comparative form of wild: more wild plural of wild

Letter map: wilder vs wilds

Shared letters muted; letters that set wilder and wilds apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. wilder runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against wilds's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
wilder
5 ch
wilds

Role in the sentence - wilder and wilds

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wilder is anadjective and wildsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49918, 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)/. wilds is at rank #33,088, tagged as anoun.

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 49918, this pair ranks #179,069 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wilder vs wilds

Shared letters: dilw. Private to "wilder": er. Private to "wilds": s.

"wilder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wilds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wilder ← iwlder · widler · wildder · wilderr · wildre · wiledr · willder · wlider
  • wilds ← iwlds · widls · wildds · wildss · willds · wilsd · wlids · wwilds

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wilder" and "wilds" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wilder" is an adjective and "wilds" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wilder" vs "wilds" - which ranks higher?
"wilder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,830 in our English list, against #33,088 for "wilds". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "wilder" and "wilds". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wilder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wilds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,069 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wilder" and "wilds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wilds 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 #179,069 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