vice

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun moral weakness
noun a specific form of evildoing

Etymology

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

In classic literature

There's no vice in him." — The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Modern English, Unknown
Vice president, manner of electing. — A School History of the United States, John Bach McMaster
The vice of Euphuism was its monotony. — From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors, Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

Synonyms

frailty

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