viciousness
noun
viciousness is spelled V-I-C-I-O-U-S-N-E-S-S: 11 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 70,702nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, viciousness means “The characteristic of being vicious” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of viciousness is viciousnesses.
How many letters and syllables are in viciousness?
| Letters | 11: V-I-C-I-O-U-S-N-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 6 million words; the 70,702nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in 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).
How common is viciousness?
Viciousness appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 70,702nd 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 viciousness?
Viciousness has 3 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-viciousness.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of viciousness
- viciousnesses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does viciousness mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The characteristic of being vicious.
- 2
The desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Viciousness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | saña |
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 viciousness come from?
From Middle English viciousnesse; equivalent to vicious + -ness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).