Shoe Width Sizes: B, D, 2E, W and XW for Women and Men
What B, D, 2E, 4E, W and XW mean on women's and men's shoes, where the brands' charts disagree, and which width to order if your feet are wide or swell.
By mid-afternoon the sides of your shoes are pressing on your little toes, and the width filter on the shoe site offers B, D, 2E, 4E, W and XW with no key. The usual fix, going up half a size, changes the length when the problem is across the ball of your foot. Below is what each letter means on women’s and on men’s charts, taken from the brands’ own size guides, where those guides disagree, and one brand’s width chart in inches so you can pick a letter.
The quick answer
Read across from the word on the listing. The women’s and men’s letters are from Orthofeet’s width charts; the Clarks columns are from its women’s and men’s fit guides.
| On the listing | Women’s letter | Men’s letter | Clarks women’s | Clarks men’s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Narrow (N) | A | B | C | not on its chart |
| Medium (M) or Standard | B | D | D | G |
| Wide (W) | D | 2E | E | H |
| Extra wide (XW, WW) | 2E | 4E | EE | XW |
| Extra-extra wide (XXW) | 4E | 6E | not on its chart | not on its chart |
Two things to take from it. On the Orthofeet charts, each word sits one step further up the alphabet on the men’s side, so a D is a women’s Wide and a men’s Medium, and a 2E is a women’s X-wide and a men’s Wide. Rockport’s size chart prints the same men’s letters for its Dunham line: “D (medium), 2E (wide), 4E (extra wide), 6E (extra-extra wide), B (narrow)”. Clarks uses a different run of letters, so read its letters against its own guide.
Why the same letter means two things
Women’s and men’s width scales start from different places. Brannock, maker of the foot-measuring device shoe shops use, sells a women’s device that reads widths 4A to 2E and a men’s device that reads 3A to 3E. On the North American lettering, the unlettered default width is D for men and B for women, and the common step between letters is 3/16 inch (4.8 mm).
A width letter is also tied to the length. Brannock’s device reads the width at the size you have just measured, and on the generic chart below a women’s Wide is 3 13/16 inches at a size 7 and 4 5/16 inches at a size 11. “I wear a wide” does not carry across sizes.
Nike’s size chart describes widths by girth instead of by letter: its Wide has about 1/4 inch (6.35 mm) more girth in the toe box than regular width, and about 1/2 inch (1.27 cm) more for its Extra Wide. Girth is measured around, not across, so those figures are not the same measurement as the letter steps above.
Where the brands disagree
Brand charts do not line up. Brannock’s own fitting tips say of narrow, wide, extra wide and similar words: “These terms are not standardized.” Here is what that looks like across the charts read for this guide:
- D is Standard at Clarks and Wide at Orthofeet. Clarks’ women’s guide lists Narrow (C), Standard (D), Wide (E) and Extra Wide (EE). On Orthofeet’s women’s chart, D is already the Wide and 2E is the X-wide.
- Altra calls its Wide a 2E on its women’s chart. Altra’s women’s size chart says three models “are available in Wide (2E width compared to our traditional D width)”. Its product listings just say Regular or Wide.
- Clarks men’s sizes use UK-style letters. Its men’s guide lists Medium Fit (G), Wide Fit (H) and Extra Wide Fit (XW). The UK lettering usually puts medium at F but varies by maker, and one maker’s E need not match another’s.
- The generic chart contradicts itself. It heads its women’s inch columns Wide (C/D) and Extra-Wide (E), while the letter list on the same page gives women’s Extra-Wide as 2E or EE.
So when a listing gives only a word, read the brand’s own chart for the letter, and when it gives only a letter, check whether the brand is using US or UK-style letters.
Women’s widths in inches, by size
Easy Spirit’s size guide prints a width in inches for every women’s size from 5 to 12 in four widths. Here are its whole sizes 7 to 11 beside the generic chart’s women’s columns.
| US women’s | Length (Easy Spirit) | Easy Spirit Medium | Easy Spirit Wide | Easy Spirit Extra Wide | Generic Average (B) | Generic Wide (C/D) | Generic Extra-Wide (E) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 9 1/2” | 3 2/7” | 3 4/5” | 4 1/2” | 3 7/16” | 3 13/16” | 4 3/16” |
| 8 | 9 6/8” | 3 3/5” | 3 8/9” | 4 2/7” | 3 9/16” | 3 15/16” | 4 5/16” |
| 9 | 10 1/8” | 3 5/7” | 4” | 4 2/5” | 3 11/16” | 4 1/16” | 4 7/16” |
| 10 | 10 2/4” | 3 4/5” | 4 1/5” | 4 3/5” | 3 3/4” | 4 3/16” | 4 9/16” |
| 11 | 10 3/4” | 3 8/9” | 4 2/7” | 4 5/7” | 3 15/16” | 4 5/16” | 4 11/16” |
The fractions are printed as the charts print them. At sizes 8 to 11, the two charts are no more than a sixteenth of an inch apart in any of these columns, by our arithmetic. Size 7 is where they part: Easy Spirit’s Extra Wide is 4 1/2 inches against the generic 4 3/16, and it is wider than the 4 2/7 inches Easy Spirit prints for its own sizes 7.5 and 8. Easy Spirit’s chart does not say whether its figures are foot widths or shoe widths.
On its listings, Easy Spirit labels widths N, M, W and WW (with NN on five), not with the words in its chart; its own site menu links Extra Wide to the WW filter. WW appears on 331 of the 755 Easy Spirit listings that carry a width option.
To use the table, measure across the ball of your foot (the method is in how to measure foot size), find the row for the length you wear, and read across to the nearest figure. If you land between two widths, Brannock’s rule is to “choose a wider width for a thick foot, a narrower width for a thin foot.”
If you are a woman looking at men’s shoes
The generic chart suggests women can buy men’s shoes for a wider fit, and they can, but the letter changes meaning when you cross over. A men’s D is the men’s Medium on Orthofeet’s chart, so a woman who wears a women’s Wide (D) and orders a men’s D is ordering the men’s medium, not a men’s wide. The men’s Wide is 2E and the men’s X-wide is 4E.
Length changes too. On one US shoe size scale women’s sizes are men’s plus 1; on another, called the “common” scale, they are men’s plus 1½. On Orthofeet’s inch rows, a women’s 9 and a men’s 8 both come out at 10 inches. Take the men’s size from that brand’s own length chart, not from a rule of thumb.
Which width to order
- Your foot is a little wider than Medium on the brand’s chart: order the brand’s Wide. That is a D for women and a 2E for men on Orthofeet’s charts, and an E for women or an H for men at Clarks.
- The Wide still presses at the sides: go to Extra Wide. Women’s 2E at Orthofeet, EE at Clarks, WW at Easy Spirit; men’s 4E at Orthofeet and on Rockport’s Dunham line.
- You are past Extra Wide: the choice narrows. Orthofeet says most of its shoes come in Medium, Wide and Extra-Wide, with only a selection in Extra-Extra-Wide: of the 417 Orthofeet listings that carry a width option, X-Wide appears on 369 and XX-Wide on 23. Rockport prints a 6E for Dunham men’s shoes, and a wide-shoe specialist sells widths up to 8E on its own lasts.
- You want walking shoes in these widths: our list of wide womens walking shoes gives the models sold in Wide and Extra Wide, with the widths each one is made in.
Before you order
- Measure when your feet are at their biggest. Brannock’s advice for everyday shoes: “For daily footwear go when you’ve been on your feet all day your feet have expanded.” Clarks’ guide adds: “Feet may swell throughout the day, particularly in warm weather or after prolonged standing.”
- Expect a wider width to change the length slightly. A specialist’s fitting page puts it this way: “Moving to a wider width may also slightly increase the overall length of the shoe.” Try the new width in your usual length first.
- Check the width is sold in your length. A width in the filter does not mean every size comes in it: on Orthofeet’s Tilos Hands-Free listing, Medium and Wide run from 7 to 14 but X-Wide stops at 13. Pick the length first, then look at which widths are left.
- Try them indoors and read the returns page before you wear them outside.
The other measuring and conversion guides are in size guides.
Where these numbers come from
The letters, inch figures and quotations are copied from the brands’ own size and fit pages (Orthofeet, Clarks, Easy Spirit, Rockport, Altra, Nike, Brannock and Hitchcock), a generic width chart and Wikipedia’s shoe size page, read on 28 September 2026. The listing counts are our tally of each store’s full product feed on the same day, and the comparison between Easy Spirit’s chart and the generic chart is our arithmetic.
Frequently asked questions
What does D mean in women's shoes?
On Orthofeet's chart, D is the women's Wide and B the women's Medium. Not every brand agrees: Clarks' women's guide calls D Standard (E Wide, EE Extra Wide), and Altra's women's chart treats D as its traditional width and calls its Wide a 2E.
Is 2E wide or extra wide?
It depends on whose chart and which gender. On Orthofeet's charts, 2E is Wide for men and X-wide for women, and Rockport prints 2E as wide for its Dunham men's line. Altra's women's size chart calls its Wide a 2E against a traditional D.
What do W, XW and WW mean on a shoe listing?
They are words standing in for letters: W is wide, XW is extra wide, and Easy Spirit uses WW on its listings, where its size guide's widest column is headed Extra Wide. Rockport's men's widths run N, M, W, XW and XXW. Which letter sits behind each word depends on the brand and on whether it is a men's or women's shoe.
Can a woman with wide feet buy men's shoes?
Yes, but a men's D is the men's Medium, so order a men's 2E or wider for extra room and check the length on that brand's chart. One US sizing scale makes women's sizes men's plus 1 and another makes them men's plus 1½, so the brand's own chart is the one to trust.
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