Which to use
“vice” and “vise” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,024
- “vice” frequency rank
- #37,761
- “vise” frequency rank
- 39785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vice | vise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bad or immoral behaviour. | An instrument consisting of two jaws, closing by a screw, lever, cam, or the like, for holding work, as in filing. |
Same sound, different letters: vice vs vise
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Homophone desk: vice vs vise
This is the hard kind. vice and vise are pronounced identically (/vaɪs/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - c in “vice” becomes s in “vise”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39785, 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/. vise is at rank #37,761, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vaɪs/.
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 39785, this pair ranks #273,516 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vice vs vise
Shared letters: eiv. Private to "vice": c. Private to "vise": s.
"vice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "vise" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vice" for "vise" ever safe?
Frequency check: "vice" vs "vise" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"vice" and "vise" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "vice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,516 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vice" and "vise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vise vs VIX". 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 #273,516 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.