vapevsvaseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,696
“vape” frequency rank
#14,245
“vase” frequency rank
35941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vape vase
Definition Clipping of vaporizer (“device in electronic cigarettes”) An upright open container used mainly for displaying fresh, dried, or artificial flowers.

Where the eye mixes vape and vase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vape
4 ch
vase

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. vape (/veɪp/) and vase (/vɑːz/) 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 a single letter - p in “vape” becomes s in “vase”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vape is recorded at frequency rank #21,696, classified as anoun, pronounced /veɪp/. vase is at rank #14,245, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vɑːz/.

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 35941, this pair ranks #307,594 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vape vs vase

Shared letters: aev. Private to "vape": p. Private to "vase": s.

"vape" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vapeavpe · vaep · vappe · vpae · vvape
  • vaseavse · vaes · vasse · vsae · vvase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vape" and "vase" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/veɪp/ versus /vɑːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vape" or "vase"?
"vase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,245 in our English list, against #21,696 for "vape". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list