vicevsVOCConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,024
“vice” frequency rank
#36,819
“VOC” frequency rank
38843
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vice VOC
Definition Bad or immoral behaviour. Initialism of volatile organic compound.

Letter map: vice vs VOC

Shared letters muted; letters that set vice and VOC apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. vice runs 4 letters (CVCV) against VOC's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vice
3 ch
VOC

Pair insight - vice / VOC

vice and VOC are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38843, 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/. VOC is at rank #36,819, tagged as anoun.

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 38843, this pair ranks #282,210 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vice vs VOC

Shared letters: cv. Private to "vice": ei. Private to "VOC": o.

"vice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "VOC" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vice ← ivce · vcie · vicce · viec · vvice

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vice" for "VOC" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "vice" vs "VOC" - which ranks higher?
"vice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,024 in our English list, against #36,819 for "VOC". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "vice" vs "VOC" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "VOC" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,210 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vice" and "VOC" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "VH vs VOC". 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 #282,210 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