# wide

> English word · Adjective · IPA /waɪd/ · frequency rank #1,177

## Definitions
1. Having a large physical extent from side to side.
2. Large in scope.
3. Overweight, obese.
4. Operating at the side of the playing area.
5. On one side or the other of the mark; too far sideways from the mark, the wicket, the batsman, etc.
6. Made, as a vowel, with a less tense, and more open and relaxed, condition of the organs in the mouth.
7. Vast, great in extent, extensive.
8. Located some distance away; distant, far.
9. Far from truth, propriety, necessity, etc.
10. Of or supporting a greater range of text characters than can fit into the traditional 8-bit representation.
11. Sharp-witted.

## Etymology
PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English wid, wyd, from Old English wīd (“wide, vast, broad, long; distant, far”), from Proto-Germanic *wīdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- (“to divide, separate”), a dissimilated univerbation from *dwi- (“apart, asunder, in two”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to do, put, place”).
Cognates
Cognate with North Frisian widj (“wide”), Saterland Frisian wied (“wide”), West Frisian wiid (“broad; wide”), Central Franconian weck, weit, wick, wiet (“distant, far, wide”), Dutch wijd (“wide; large; broad”), German weit (“far; wide; broad”), Luxembourgish weit (“wide”), wäit (“far”), Yiddish ווײַט (vayt, “distant, far”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish vid (“wide”), Faroese and Icelandic víður (“wide”); also Breton gwez (“trees”), Cornish gwedh, gwëdh, gwydh, gwÿdh (“trees”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic fiodh (“timber, wood”), Manx fuygh (“timber, wood”), Welsh gwŷdd (“trees”), Latin dīvidō (“to divide, separate”), Latgalian vyds (“middle”), Latvian vidus (“center, middle”), Lithuanian vidùs (“interior, inside; inward”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B wätk- (“to distinguish, separate”). Related to widow.

## Easily confused with
- **win** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-win)
- **WWE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wwe)
- **wit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wit)
- **Wii** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wii)
- **wig** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wig)
- **woe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-woe)
- **wis** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wis)
- **wiz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wiz)
- **Wie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wie)
- **wye** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wye)
- **WMD** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wmd)
- **wim** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wim)
- **with** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-with)
- **will** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-will)
- **wife** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wife)
- **wish** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wish)
- **wind** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wind)
- **wild** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wild)
- **wine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wine)
- **wins** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wide-vs-wins)

## Common misspellings (5)
`iwde`, `wdie`, `widde`, `wied`, `wwide`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/wide