vice versa
The other way round — the same statement with the two parts swapped.
“She helps him with maths and vice versa.”
“Changes in the south office affect the north office and vice versa, so nothing gets decided alone.”
“The clause states that a breach by the supplier releases the customer and vice versa, a symmetry that reads as fairness until you notice the two parties are not remotely equal in size.”
Vice versa is a complete Latin construction that English swallowed whole. Vice is a form of vicis — a turn, a change, an alternation — and versa comes from vertere, to turn. Together they mean the position having been reversed.
The same root is scattered across English. A vice-president holds office in place of the president, a vicar stands in for someone else, and vicissitudes are the turns of fortune that keep swapping your circumstances around.
English uses vice versa to avoid writing a sentence twice, and it only works when the sentence is genuinely symmetrical. Teachers can learn from students and vice versa is fine; the construction quietly breaks whenever the reversed version does not actually make sense.
What Rome left in English — Caesar, the arena, the roads, the law, and the poets.
- 01
a Pyrrhic victory (idiom)
A win that costs so much it feels almost like a defeat.
- 02
a Roman holiday (idiom)
Enjoyment taken from watching somebody else suffer.
- 03
ad hoc (idiom)
Made for this one situation, with no general rule behind it.
- 04
ad nauseam (idiom)
Repeated so often that everyone is sick of it.
- 05
all roads lead to Rome (idiom)
Different paths can take one to the same goal.
- 06
alter ego (idiom)
A second self — either a trusted other person or a different side of yourself.
Last updated August 3, 2026