Which to use
“vicious” is an adjective and “viciously” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,270
- “vicious” frequency rank
- #31,816
- “viciously” frequency rank
- 41086
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vicious | viciously |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Violent, destructive and cruel. | In a vicious manner; ferociously or maliciously. |
Letter map: vicious vs viciously
Shared letters muted; letters that set vicious and viciously apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. vicious runs 7 letters (CVCVVVC) against viciously's 9 (CVCVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: vicious vs viciously
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vicious is anadjective and viciouslyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “vicious” sits inside “viciously”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vicious is recorded at frequency rank #9,270, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈvɪʃəs/. viciously is at rank #31,816, tagged as anadv.
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 41086, this pair ranks #261,602 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vicious vs viciously
Shared letters: ciosuv. Private to "vicious": -. Private to "viciously": ly.
"vicious" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC · "viciously" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vicious" for "viciously" ever safe?
Frequency check: "vicious" vs "viciously" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "vicious" and "viciously". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "vicious" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "viciously" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #261,602 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vicious" and "viciously" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vicariously vs viciously". 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 #261,602 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.