vicious
/ˈvɪʃəs/adjective
vicious is spelled V-I-C-I-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is viscious: about 480 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Vicious is an adjective meaning “Violent, destructive and cruel”.
How many letters and syllables are in vicious?
| Letters | 7: V-I-C-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words; the 9,165th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, viscious, about 480 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell vicious?
Vicious is spelled V-I-C-I-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for vicious in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is vicious?
Vicious appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce vicious?
- /ˈvɪʃəs/
Vicious has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-vicious.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with vicious
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of vicious
- more vicious comparative
- viciouser comparative
- most vicious superlative
- viciousest superlative
- vitious
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does vicious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Violent, destructive and cruel.
- 2
Savage and aggressive.
- 3
archaicPertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Vicious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | violent (e), destructif, destructive , vicieux |
| German | gewalttätig, destruktiv , böse, boshaft , grausam, aggressiv |
| Portuguese | atroz, brutal, cruel, desapiedado, destrutivo, sanguinolento |
| Spanish | vicioso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does vicious come from?
From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium (“fault, vice”). Equivalent to vice + -ous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).