vicevsVigoTell them apart

Quick tell: vice is a noun, Vigo is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vice” is a noun and “Vigo” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,024
“vice” frequency rank
#40,507
“Vigo” frequency rank
42531
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vice Vigo
Definition Bad or immoral behaviour. A number of places:

Where the eye mixes vice and Vigo

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

4 ch
vice
4 ch
Vigo

Look-alike desk: vice vs Vigo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vice is /vaɪs/ while Vigo is /ˈviːɡəʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42531, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vice is recorded at frequency rank #2,024, classified as anoun, pronounced /vaɪs/. Vigo is at rank #40,507, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈviːɡəʊ/.

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 42531, this pair ranks #248,341 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vice vs Vigo

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vice": ce. Private to "Vigo": go.

"vice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Vigo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viceivce · vcie · vicce · viec · vvice
  • Vigoivgo · vgio · viggo · viog · vvigo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vice" and "Vigo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vice" is a noun and "Vigo" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vice" vs "Vigo" - which ranks higher?
"vice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,024 in our English list, against #40,507 for "Vigo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Vigo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #248,341 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vice" and "Vigo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Vigo vs Vinod". 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 #248,341 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list