Word.ws English Dictionary

vice

UK/vaɪs/

vice noun: bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others). Also the clipping of vice squad.

Noun (1)

vice (plural vices)

  1. Bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others)
    • Pride is a vice, not a virtue.
    • Smoking was a vice Sally picked up in high school.
    Antonyms:
    virtue
  2. Any of various crimes related (depending on jurisdiction) to weapons, prostitution, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
  3. A defect in the temper or behaviour of a horse, such as to make the animal dangerous, to injure its health, or to diminish its usefulness.
    • So a horse with say, navicular disease, making him suitable only for light hacking, would probably be unsound, whereas rearing would be a vice, being a "defect in the temper... making it dangerous". A vice can however render a horse unsound - possibly a crib biter will damage its wind.1839, Scholefield v. Robb; cited in Gilligan, Brenda, Practical Horse Law, 2002, →ISBN

Noun (2)

vice (plural vices)

  1. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements.
  2. A winding or spiral staircase.
  3. (obsolete) A grip or grasp.
    • Fang. If I but fiſt him once: if he come but within my Vice.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...

Adjective

vice (not comparable)

  1. in place of; subordinate to; designating a person below another in rank
    • vice president
    • vice admiral

Preposition

vice

  1. (dated) Instead of; in place of; versus.
    • He was gardener and out-door man, vice Upton, resigned.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXI, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC
    • A very small cab-boy, vice Stoopid retired, swung on behind Foker's vehicle; knock-kneed and in the tightest leather breeches.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXVIII, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC

Noun (3)

vice (plural vices)

  1. One who acts in place of a superior.
    • c. 1850s-1870s, Edward Minister and Son, The Gazette of Fashion and Cutting-Room Companion
      The health of the Vice was proposed in appropriate language; in replying, Mr. Marriott thanked the company […]

Proper noun capitalized: Vice

Vice (plural Vices)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

vice is also the clipping of vice squad.

vice is also the alternative spelling of vise.

vice meaning in Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit and Nepali

vice in Telugu

వైస్

vice in Kannada

ವೈಸ್

vice in Sanskrit

bad habit
व्यसन vyasana

vice in Nepali

भाइस
More languagesFewer languages
vice in Tagalog
bisyo
vice in Arabic
رَذِيلَة raḏīla
vice in Malay
maksiat
vice in Indonesian
cela
vice in Persian
رذیلت razilat
vice in Thai
อบายมุข à-baai-yá-múk

Examples of vice in a sentence

  • Some days I like to enjoy private vices.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:
  • It's a rush you can't deny / A little violence is the ultimate drug / Let's get high / You've been powerless to your vices / Self-control defies you2015, “Vices” (01:22-02:33 from the start), in Repentless (Thrash Metal), performed by Slayer:
  • I should not be left to my own devices / they come with prices and vices / I end up in crisis / Tale as old as time2022 October 21, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, “Anti-Hero”, in Midnights (Pop Rock, Synth-Pop, Electropop), performed by Taylor Swift:

All 40 example sentences with vice

Synonyms of vice

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of vice

Forms of vice

Noun
pluralvices
Verb
third-person singular presentvices
present participlevicing
past participleviced
pastviced
Proper noun
pluralVices

Plural of vice: vices

Origin of vice

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English vice, from Old French vice, from Latin vitium (“fault or blemish”). Displaced native Old English unþēaw.

See vise.

From Latin vice (“in place of”), ablative form of vicis. Compare French fois (“time”) and Spanish vez (“time, turn”).

Words formed from vice

Phrases with vice

18 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with vice

31 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about vice

What does vice mean?
Vice means bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others).
What is vice in Telugu?
Vice in Telugu is వైస్. See Vice meaning in Telugu.
How do you use vice in a sentence?
Some days I like to enjoy private vices.
What part of speech is vice?
Vice can be a noun, an adjective, a preposition or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce vice?
Vice is pronounced /vaɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of vice?
The plural of vice is vices.

Words near vice in the dictionary

  1. vicars-choral
  2. vicars-general
  3. vicarship
  4. vicarships
  5. vicary
  6. vice
  7. vice admiral
  8. vice admirals
  9. vice chair
  10. vice chairman
  11. vice chairmen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vice (page history and authors); Vice (page history and authors); vice (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vice (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vice (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-vice.ogg.

Cite this entry: “vice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.