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vice

/vaɪs/noun, verb, adjective, preposition

vice is a noun meaning “Bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-I-C-E and has one syllable (vice-), and it appears 51 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of vice is vices.

What does vice mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others)

    Pride is a vice, not a virtue.

  2. 2

    Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.

  3. 3

    slangClipping of vice squad.

  4. 4

    A defect in the temper or behaviour of a horse, such as to make the animal dangerous, to injure its health, or to diminish its usefulness.

  5. 5

    CommonwealthAlternative spelling of vise (“mechanical screw apparatus used for clamping”).

  6. 6

    A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.

  7. 7

    A winding or spiral staircase.

  8. 8

    obsoleteA grip or grasp.

  9. 9

    One who acts in place of a superior.

    c. 1850s-1870s, Edward Minister and Son, The Gazette of Fashion and Cutting-Room Companion The health of the Vice was proposed in appropriate language; in replying, Mr. Marriott thanked the company […]

adjective

  1. 1

    in place of; subordinate to; designating a person below another in rank

    vice president

verb

  1. 1

    Alternative spelling of vise (“to hold or squeeze with a vice”).

preposition

  1. 1

    datedInstead of; in place of; versus.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce vice?

  • US /vaɪs/

Vice has one syllable, split vice- in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-vice.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-vice-.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of vice

  • vices plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • vicing participle, present
  • viced participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is vice?

Vice appears 51 times per million words in written English, the 1,993rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with vice

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

vice vs vise1,300 G

Sounds like: vise (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: vise.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Vice in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvice (bad habit), affaire de mœurs (crime related to prostitution, pornography…), vice- (deputy)
GermanLaster, Lasterhaftigkeit, Untugend (bad habit), Sittenvergehen, Sittlichkeitsdelikt, Sittlichkeitsverbrechen (crime related to prostitution, pornography…)
Portuguesevício, mania (bad habit), vice- (deputy)
Spanishvicio, resabio (bad habit), vice- (deputy)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does vice come from?

From Middle English vice, from Old French vice, from Latin vitium (“fault or blemish”). Displaced native Old English unþēaw.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).