vetovsvoteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,165
“veto” frequency rank
#820
“vote” frequency rank
12985
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veto vote
Definition A political right to disapprove of (and thereby stop) the process of a decision, a law etc. A formalized choice on legally relevant measures such as employment or appointment to office or a proceeding about a legal dispute.

Where the eye mixes veto and vote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
veto
4 ch
vote

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. veto (/ˈviːtəʊ/) and vote (/vəʊt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12985, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veto is recorded at frequency rank #12,165, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈviːtəʊ/. vote is at rank #820, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vəʊt/.

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 12985, this pair ranks #478,379 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of veto vs vote

Shared letters: eotv. Private to "veto": -. Private to "vote": -.

"veto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vetoevto · veot · vetto · vteo · vveto
  • voteovte · voet · votte · vtoe · vvote

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "veto" and "vote" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈviːtəʊ/ versus /vəʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "veto" or "vote"?
"vote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #820 in our English list, against #12,165 for "veto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list