visevsvoteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,761
“vise” frequency rank
#820
“vote” frequency rank
38581
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vise vote
Definition An instrument consisting of two jaws, closing by a screw, lever, cam, or the like, for holding work, as in filing. 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 vise and vote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. vise and vote follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
vise
4 ch
vote

Why the eye confuses vise with vote

A purely visual mix-up. vise (/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 38581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vise is recorded at frequency rank #37,761, 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 38581, this pair ranks #284,632 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vise vs vote

Shared letters: ev. Private to "vise": is. Private to "vote": ot.

"vise" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vise ← visse · vsie · vvise
  • vote ← ovte · voet · votte · vtoe · vvote

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vise" and "vote" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/vaɪs/ versus /vəʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vise" vs "vote" - which ranks higher?
"vote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #820 in our English list, against #37,761 for "vise". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vise" 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 #284,632 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vise" and "vote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vise vs VIX". 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 #284,632 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