Vice versa is a Latin phrase meaning “the other way around” or “with the positions reversed.” When you say vice versa, you're indicating that what you just said is also true if you flip the two things you're talking about.

If your teacher says “students who read more become better writers, and vice versa,” she means that better writers also tend to read more. The relationship works both ways. When someone explains that cats often don't like dogs and vice versa, they're saying dogs often don't like cats either.

Vice versa saves you from repeating yourself. Instead of saying “Marcus helps Sofia with math, and Sofia helps Marcus with spelling,” you could say “Marcus helps Sofia with math and vice versa.” The phrase signals that the relationship you just described also works in reverse.

People pronounce it “VY-suh VUR-suh” and write it as two words without hyphens. While it comes from Latin, it's been used in English for centuries and appears regularly in everyday conversation. You'll see it most often when people are describing reciprocal relationships: situations where two things affect each other in similar ways, or where the same rule applies no matter which direction you look at it.