v

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The 22nd letter of the modern English alphabet.
2. n. Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter v.
3. n. The 22nd in a series.
4. n. Something shaped like the letter V.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. An abbreviation [l. c] of verb active
2. [lowercase] of verbal adjective
3. of Vicar Apostolic
4. of Vice-Admiral
5. of Victoria and Albert (Order of)
6. [lowercase] of the Latin vixit annos, lived [so many] years.
7. n. An abbreviation of Vice-Chairman
8. n. of Vice-Chancellor.
9. n. An abbreviation of Vice-Lieutenant.
10. n. An abbreviation in electrotechnics, of voltmeter
11. n. of the Latin Veterinarius Medicus, veterinary physician.
12. n. An abbreviation of the Latin verbum neutrum, neuter verb.
13. n. An abbreviation of Very Worshipful.
14. This character, the twenty-second in our alphabet, is (see U) the older form of character U, having been long used equivalently with the latter, and only recently strictly distinguished from it as the representative of a different sound. The words beginning respectively with U and V, like those beginning with I and J, were, till not many years ago, mingled together in dictionaries. In our present practice, V represents always and in all situations a fricative sound, corresponding as sonant or voiced utterance to f as surd or breathed; it is the rustling made by forcing the intonated breath out between the surface of the lower lip and the edges of the upper front teeth, laid closely upon it. A purely labial v (as f: see F), made without aid from the teeth, is found in some languages. This sound is also almost the exclusive property of the v-sign; the number of words, as Stephen, nephew, in which it is written otherwise is extremely small, and in these words the ph is an etymological “restoration” (the old and normal English forms being Steven, nevew). It is a frequent element in our utterance, making on an average over two and a third per cent. of it (the f-sound only two per cent.). As initial, it is almost solely of Romanic (French-Latin) origin, altered in pronunciation from the semi-vowel or w-sound, which belonged to the same sign in Roman use (see W). At the end of a word (where, however, it is never written without a following e), it is found in many words of Germanic origin. often alternating with its surd counterpart f, as in wife, wives, half, halve, etc.
15. As a Roman numeral, V stands for 5; with a dash over it (V), 5,000.
16. 3, [lowercase] An abbreviation of velocity (in physics); verb; verse; versus (in law); vert (in heraldry); vision (in medicine); of verte, violino, voce, and volta (in music); of ventral (fin), etc.
17. The chemical symbol of vanadium.
18. n. A five-dollar bill: so called from the character V which is conspicuous upon it.
19. n. An abbreviation of Victoria cross.
20. n. An abbreviation, in book-catalogues, of various dates.
21. n. An abbreviation of verb intransitive.
22. n. An abbreviation of vice-president.
23. n. In music, an abbreviation of volti subito.
24. n. An abbreviation of veterinary surgeon.
25. The abbreviation, used in this work, of verb transitive.
26. n. An abbreviation in book-catalogues of various years.

Wiktionary

1. n. The twenty-second letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
2. n. cardinal number five (5).
3. n. physics velocity
4. n. phonetics used in the International Phonetic Alphabet and in several romanization systems of non-Latin scripts to represent a voiced labiodental fricative (IPA: /v/).
5. n. The twenty-second letter of the English alphabet, called vee and written in the Latin script.
6. abbr. Alternative form of v..
7. n. a shape resembling the letter v

GNU Webster's 1913

1. V, the twenty-second letter of the English alphabet, is a vocal consonant. V and U are only varieties of the same character, U being the cursive form, while V is better adapted for engraving, as in stone. The two letters were formerly used indiscriminately, and till a comparatively recent date words containing them were often classed together in dictionaries and other books of reference (see u). The letter V is from the Latin alphabet, where it was used both as a consonant (about like English w) and as a vowel. The Latin derives it from a form (V) of the Greek vowel Υ (see y), this Greek letter being either from the same Semitic letter as the digamma F (see f), or else added by the Greeks to the alphabet which they took from the Semitic. Etymologically v is most nearly related to u, w, f, b, p; as in vine, wine; avoirdupois, habit, have; safe, save; trover, troubadour, trope. See U, F, etc.
2. As a numeral, V stands for five, in English and Latin.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a unit of potential equal to the potential difference between two points on a conductor carrying a current of 1 ampere when the power dissipated between the two points is 1 watt; equivalent to the potential difference across a resistance of 1 ohm when 1 ampere of current flows through it
2. n. the cardinal number that is the sum of four and one
3. adj. being one more than four
4. n. a soft silvery white toxic metallic element used in steel alloys; it occurs in several complex minerals including carnotite and vanadinite
5. n. the 22nd letter of the Roman alphabet