vicevsvoicesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,024
“vice” frequency rank
#3,993
“voices” frequency rank
6017
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vice voices
Definition Bad or immoral behaviour. plural of voice

Where the eye mixes vice and voices

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vice runs 4 letters (CVCV) against voices's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vice
6 ch
voices

Look-alike desk: vice vs voices

A purely visual mix-up. vice (/vaɪs/) and voices (/ˈvɔɪsɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6017, 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/. voices is at rank #3,993, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɔɪsɪz/.

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 6017, this pair ranks #513,108 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vice vs voices

Shared letters: ceiv. Private to "vice": -. Private to "voices": os.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vice ← ivce · vcie · vicce · viec · vvice
  • voices ← ovices · vioces · vocies · voicces · voicess · voicse · voiecs · vvoices

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vice" and "voices" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/vaɪs/ versus /ˈvɔɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vice" vs "voices" - which ranks higher?
"vice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,024 in our English list, against #3,993 for "voices". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "vice" and "voices" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #513,108 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vice" and "voices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vaca vs vice". 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 #513,108 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