# vice versa

idiom · CEFR B2

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/vice-versa
Updated: 2026-08-03

## Meaning

The other way round — the same statement with the two parts swapped.

## Examples

- 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.

## Origin

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.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.