wildervsWilesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#16,830
“wilder” frequency rank
#41,472
“Wiles” frequency rank
58302
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wilder Wiles
Definition comparative form of wild: more wild A surname transferred from the nickname. A patronymic form of Wile.

Letter map: wilder vs Wiles

Shared letters muted; letters that set wilder and Wiles apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
wilder
5 ch
Wiles

Role in the sentence - wilder and Wiles

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wilder is anadjective and Wilesaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58302, 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)/. Wiles is at rank #41,472, tagged as aname.

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 58302, this pair ranks #113,474 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wilder vs Wiles

Shared letters: eilw. Private to "wilder": dr. Private to "Wiles": s.

"wilder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Wiles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wilderiwlder · widler · wildder · wilderr · wildre · wiledr · willder · wlider
  • Wilesiwles · wiels · wiless · willes · wilse · wlies · wwiles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wilder" for "Wiles" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wilder" is an adjective and "Wiles" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "wilder" or "Wiles" show up more?
"wilder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,830 in our English list, against #41,472 for "Wiles". 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 "Wiles". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wilder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wiles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #113,474 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wilder" and "Wiles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wiles 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 #113,474 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