spread like wildfire
"spread-like-wildfire" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spread like wildfire” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 20
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To spread or disseminate rapidly or uncontrollably.
Corpus desk
Index EN-spread-like-wildfire · spread like wildfire · English
spread like wildfire · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 20 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spread like wildfire |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “spread like wildfire” in English
Rare enough to double-check
spread like wildfire is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To spread or disseminate rapidly or uncontrollably.".
Zero misspellings are on record for spread like wildfire in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is spread like wildfire, spelled S-P-R-E-A-D- -L-I-K-E- -W-I-L-D-F-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1To spread or disseminate rapidly or uncontrollably.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how spread like wildfire appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The virus spread like wildfire throughout the Internet.
The propaganda of the rebels spread like wild-fire, and the hopes of the more daring Irish Catholics rose high.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.