| vicar | n. | lesser or substitute priest (details vary between the various denominations; usu. a vicar does not receive the full stipend of a priest per se) | ||
| vicinage | n. | neighborhood, vicinity | ||
| vicinal | adj. | neighboring, adjacent | ||
| vicissitudes | n. | ups and downs, recurring changes | ||
| videlicet | adv. | to wit, namely, that is to say | Latin | |
| viga | n. | large wooden beam used in adobe construction | ||
| vigesimal | adj. | based upon or related to the number twenty | ||
| vigneron | n. | wine-grower | ||
| vihara | n. | Buddhist monastery | ||
| vinegarroon | n. | large whipscorpion found in Mexico and the southern United States, with a nasty, though nonvenomous, sting | ||
| vinous | adj. | relating to wine; caused by indulgence in wine | ||
| virescent | adj. | greenish, turning green | ||
| virga | n. | streaky precipitation from clouds which evaporates before reaching earth | ||
| virgate | n. | old English land measure, usu. thought to be a quarter of a hide (thus, virgate equals 30 acres) | ||
| viridescent | adj. | greenish | ||
| virulent | adj. | extremely noxious; intensely poisonous; very bitter, highly acrimonious | ||
| viscid | adj. | sticky | ||
| vitiate | v. | to spoil; to invalidate; to pervert, to debase | ||
| viviparous | adj. | born alive, as opposed to hatching from an egg or germinating from a seed | biology | |
| vizard | n. | mask, visor | archaic | |
| vlei | n. | lowland marsh or flat lake, often appearing only seasonally | ||
| voile | n. | diaphanous cotton fabric | ||
| volary | n. | large bird cage, aviary | ||
| volatile salts | n. | smelling salts | ||
| volatilizing | v. | becoming volatile, passing out as vapor, emitting vapor | ||
| volplane | v. | to fly downward in an airplane with the motor off | ||
| volt | n. | leap or jerk in fencing to avoid a thrust; turning in a tight circle in dressage | ||
| volta | n. | turn or change in tone, thought, or emotion (esp. in poetry and more esp. in a sonnet) | rhetoric | |
| volute | adj. | having a spiral shape | ||
| vorlage | n. | 1 | skiing position in skier leans well forward while keeping heel down on the ski | |
| Vorlage | n. | 2 | earlier version of a text | |
| votress | n. | female votary, religious, or devotee | ||
| vulnerary | adv. | useful for healing wounds | ||
| vulpicide | n. | killing a fox by any means other than hunting it with hounds | ||
| vulpine | adj. | of or related to a fox; sly, crafty | ||
| waffy | adj. | silly; faint; sickly, nauseating | British | |
| wainscoting | n. | paneling of walls or halls, often only on the lower section | ||
| wale | n. | ridge or mark upon the skin produced by lash or cane; raised line in fabric; gunwale; horizontal timbers used for bracing piles | ||
| waler | n. | light Australian breed of riding horse, originally bred in New South Wales | ||
| wangateur | n. | conjurer, witch-doctor | ||
| wangle | v. | to manipulate, to bring about in an indirect or underhanded way; to induce another (to do something) | ||
| wanhope | n. | despair, hopelessness | ||
| wantwit | n. | someone lacking wit or sense | ||
| wapentake | n. | subdivision of certain shires in Northern England and the Midlands, corresponding to hundreds of other counties | ||
| warrener | n. | professional keeper or hunter of rabbits | ||
| wat | n. | Buddhist temple (in parts of Southeast Asia) | ||
| water-cart | n. | vehicle consisting of a barrel or tank on wheels, used primarily to water streets, though sometimes used to provide water for consumption | ||
| wattle | v. | fleshy lobe hanging down from neck or head of certain fowl | ||
| wayward | adj. | driven by willful deviation from norms to gratify one’s own desires | ||
| weasand | n. | esophagus; trachea; throat | archaic |
