Word.ws English Dictionary

v

More pronunciations (2)Fewer pronunciations

phoneme/v/letter/viː/

v letter: the twenty-second letter of the English alphabet, called vee and written in the Latin script. Also the abbreviation of versus.

Letter (1)

  1. (letter, lowercase) The twenty-second letter of the English alphabet, called vee and written in the Latin script.

Noun (1)

v (plural vs or v's)

  1. A shape resembling the letter.
    • The impact was so strong, it bent the bar into a v.

Letter (2) capitalized: V

  1. (letter, uppercase) The twenty-second letter of the English alphabet, called vee and written in the Latin script.

Noun (2) capitalized: V

V (plural Vs or V's)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of vocative case.
  2. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of verb.
  3. (euphemistic) Vagina.
  4. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of vowel.
    • The standard syllable structure of Lang Belta is CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant), but there are also syllables without one or both of these consonants. Therefore, other possible structures are: initial V, initial CV, and VC. For example, V ereluf ‘air’, VC unte ‘and’, CV xalte ‘to stay’, and CVC...2021 October 5, Gessica Puccini, “Lang Belta: the Belter language from SYFY/Amazon’s The Expanse”, in Lingoblog
  5. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of velocity.
  6. (countable, slang) Viagra.
    • The unfortunate, and quite ironic, side effect of all these chemicals is a penis that refuses to budge. Steven has been handing out the Vs in abundance for as the long as boys have been high in his second-floor flat, two for a fiver.2017, James Wharton, Something for the Weekend, Biteback Publishing, →ISBN
  7. Anything shaped like a V
    • She watched him through the perfect V between the seats for the rest of the journey.2022, Maddie Mortimer, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, Picador, page 149
    Synonyms:
    vee
    1. A flying skein of geese or other birds which have placed themselves in a V-shaped formation.
  8. (Ireland, UK) A V-sign; by extension, an insult or show of defiance.
    • And it's here that life decides to flick a V at me.2011 May 12, Ruth Saberton, Ellie Andrews Has Second Thoughts: A bride to be . . . an unexpected encounter – a romantic comedy to fall in love with, Hachette UK, →ISBN
    • As Baxter turned and left, muttering under his breath, Winter flicked a V at his retreating bulk and took one last picture of the scene, knowing while he did so that it was a bad idea but doing it anyway.2011 June 9, Craig Robertson, Snapshot, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN
  9. (abbreviation, dated) Abbreviation of venturi.
    • 4V
    • 2V
    Synonyms:
    bbl

Symbol capitalized: V

V

  1. (titular) Viscount.
  2. (titular) Viscountess.

Proper noun capitalized: V

V

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Visa.
    • Shares of Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) moved slightly higher after the deal was announced.2024 March 26, Elisabeth Buchwald, “Visa and Mastercard agree to $30 billion settlement that will lower merchant fees”, in CNN Business

Also used as

v is also the abbreviation of versus.

v is also the abbreviation of very.

v is also the abbreviation of venturi.

Synonyms of v

Forms of v

Letter
uppercaseV
pluralvs
pluralv's
lowercasev
pluralVs
pluralV's
Noun
pluralvs
pluralv's
pluralVs
pluralV's

Origin of v

From Middle English lower case letter v (also written u), from Old English lower case u and respelling of Old English f between vowels and voiced consonants. * Old English lower case f from 7th century replacement by Latin lower case f of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚠ (f, “feoh”), derived from Etruscan letter 𐌅 (v). * Old English lower case u from 7th century replacement by Latin lower case v of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚢ (u, “ur”), derived from Raetic letter u. Before the 1700s, the pointed form v was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form u was used elsewhere, regardless of sound. So whereas valor and excuse appeared as in modern printing, have and upon were printed haue and vpon. Eventually, in the 1700s, to differentiate between the consonant and vowel sounds, the v form was used to represent the consonant, and u the vowel sound. v then preceded u in the alphabet, but the order has since reversed.

Abbreviation of versus.

Abbreviation of very.

Words formed from v

Words that rhyme with v

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about v

What does v mean?
V means the twenty-second letter of the English alphabet, called vee and written in the Latin script.
What part of speech is v?
V can be a letter, a noun, a symbol or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce v?
V is pronounced /v/ (phoneme).

Words near v in the dictionary

  1. Uúba
  2. Uşak
  3. Užventis
  4. u̇
  5. u̠t-Ma'in
  6. v
  7. V block
  8. V blocks
  9. V card
  10. V cards
  11. V engine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: v (page history and authors); V (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-v.ogg.

Cite this entry: “v.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/v. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.