vievsvoiceWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: vie is a verb, voice is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#18,456
“vie” frequency rank
#918
“voice” frequency rank
19374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vie voice
Definition To fight for superiority; to contend; to compete eagerly so as to gain something. Sound uttered by the mouth, especially by human beings in speech or song; sound thus uttered considered as possessing some special quality or character.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set vie and voice apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
vie
5 ch
voice

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vie is /vaɪ/ while voice is /vɔɪs/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vie is recorded at frequency rank #18,456, classified as averb, pronounced /vaɪ/. voice is at rank #918, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vɔɪs/.

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 19374, this pair ranks #438,630 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vie vs voice

Shared letters: eiv. Private to "vie": -. Private to "voice": co.

"vie" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "voice" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voiceovice · vioce · vocie · voicce · voiec · vvoice

Frequency comparison

vie#18,456
voice#918

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vie" and "voice" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vie" is a verb and "voice" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vie" or "voice"?
"voice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #918 in our English list, against #18,456 for "vie". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering vie vs voice

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list