vicevsvoteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,024
“vice” frequency rank
#820
“vote” frequency rank
2844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vice vote
Definition Bad or immoral behaviour. A formalized choice on legally relevant measures such as employment or appointment to office or a proceeding about a legal dispute.

Where the eye mixes vice and vote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vice
4 ch
vote

Visual trap between vice and vote

A purely visual mix-up. vice (/vaɪs/) and vote (/vəʊt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2844, 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/. vote is at rank #820, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vəʊt/.

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 2844, this pair ranks #523,877 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vice vs vote

Shared letters: ev. Private to "vice": ci. Private to "vote": ot.

"vice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viceivce · vcie · vicce · viec · vvice
  • voteovte · voet · votte · vtoe · vvote

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vice" for "vote" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/vaɪs/ versus /vəʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "vice" or "vote" show up more?
"vote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #820 in our English list, against #2,024 for "vice". 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 "vote" 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 "vote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #523,877 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vice" and "vote" 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 #523,877 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