vice vs voiced, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,024
“vice” frequency rank: #10,313
“voiced” frequency rank: 12337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	vice	voiced
Definition	Bad or immoral behaviour.	simple past and past participle of voice

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vice and voiced apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

vice

6 ch

voiced

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vice is /vaɪs/ while voiced is /vɔɪst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12337, 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/. voiced is at rank #10,313, tagged as averb, pronounced /vɔɪst/.

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 12337, this pair ranks #482,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vice vs voiced

Shared letters: ceiv. Private to "vice": -. Private to "voiced": do.

"vice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "voiced" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

vice ← ivce · vcie · vicce · viec · vvice
voiced ← oviced · vioced · vocied · voicced · voicde · voicedd · voiecd · vvoiced

Frequency comparison

vice#2,024

voiced#10,313

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vice" and "voiced" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vice" is a noun and "voiced" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "vice" or "voiced"?

"vice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,024 in our English list, against #10,313 for "voiced". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering vice vs voiced

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “vice”; for a verb, it's “voiced”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “vice” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable