SpellingIQ

How to spell vicious

vicious

Vicious is spelled V-I-C-I-O-U-S.

Not visious.

Why is vicious easy to misspell?

Same sound, different letters

The word vicious ends -cious, and the misspelling visious writes an S. It is vice plus -ious, and the C of vice stays, though here it is said as SH.

That spelling matches the sound exactly, which is why it looked right. English keeps letters long after the sound has moved on, so the conventional spelling is often the one that looks least like it sounds.

What does vicious mean?

adjective. Deliberately cruel or violent.

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SpellingIQ is a skill rating for spelling ability, not a clinical or psychometric IQ measure. American English is canonical; common variants are accepted.