wildsvswitsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,088
“wilds” frequency rank
#19,257
“wits” frequency rank
52345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wilds wits
Definition plural of wild plural of wit

Letter map: wilds vs wits

Shared letters muted; letters that set wilds and wits apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. wilds runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against wits's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
wilds
4 ch
wits

Spelling & dictionary notes on wilds vs wits

wilds and wits 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 52345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wilds is recorded at frequency rank #33,088, classified as anoun. wits is at rank #19,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɪts/.

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 52345, this pair ranks #157,849 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wilds vs wits

Shared letters: isw. Private to "wilds": dl. Private to "wits": t.

"wilds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "wits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wilds ← iwlds · widls · wildds · wildss · willds · wilsd · wlids · wwilds
  • wits ← iwts · wist · witss · witts · wtis · wwits

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wilds" for "wits" ever safe?
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: "wilds" vs "wits" - which ranks higher?
"wits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,257 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.

After this comparison

Pair "wilds" vs "wits" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wilds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #157,849 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wilds" and "wits" 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 #157,849 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