Which to use
“wide” and “wilder” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,076
- “wide” frequency rank
- #36,660
- “wilder” frequency rank
- 69736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wide | wilder |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Large. | Comparatif de wild. |
Where the eye mixes wide and wilder
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wide runs 4 letters (CVCV) against wilder's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses wide with wilder
A purely visual mix-up. wide (\waɪd\) and wilder (\ˈvɪl.dɐ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wide is recorded at frequency rank #33,076, classified as anadj, pronounced \waɪd\. wilder is at rank #36,660, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈvɪl.dɐ\.
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 69736, this pair ranks #54,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wide vs wilder
Shared letters: deiw. Private to "wide": -. Private to "wilder": lr.
"wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "wilder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wide" and "wilder" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "wide" vs "wilder" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wilder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wide" and "wilder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wiener vs wilder". 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 #54,018 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.