Vajpayee, Atal Bihari
former prime minister of India

Val d'Isère

Valentine's Day

Valium
TM; a brand of diazepam

Vallance, Sir Iain
former chairman of BT

valley
lc, eg Thames valley, Ruhr valley, the Welsh valleys, valley girl

Valparaíso

Valuation Office Agency
(VOA after first mention) an executive agency of HM Revenue & Customs, it compiles business rating and council tax valuation lists for England and Wales but not Scotland, where the job is done by the Scottish Assessors

ValuJet
Atlanta-based budget airline now called AirTran

V&A
abbreviation for Victoria and Albert Museum

Vanessa-Mae
violinist (note hyphen)

Van Gogh, Vincent
(1853-90) Dutch artist; note that as with other Dutch names it is Van Gogh when just the surname is used (a Van Gogh masterpiece) but van Gogh with the forename (a masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh)

Vanuatu
formerly New Hebrides

vapour
but vaporise

Vargas Llosa, Mario
Peruvian writer and politician

Vaseline
TM; call it petroleum jelly

 
VAT
value added tax; no need to spell it out

Vaughan or Vaughn?
Frankie Vaughan
Johnny Vaughan
Michael Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan

Matthew Vaughn
Robert Vaughn
Vince Vaughn

VE Day
(May 8 1945); VJ Day (August 15 1945)

Vehicle Inspectorate

Velázquez, Diego
(1599-1660) Spanish painter

Velcro
TM

veld
not veldt

venal
open to bribery; venial easily forgiven

venetian blind

veranda
not verandah

verdicts
recorded by coroners; returned by inquest juries

Verkhovna Rada
(supreme council) Ukraine's parliament

vermilion

verruca
not verucca

verse
see poetry

very
usually very redundant

Vespa
scooters

Vesta
curries

veterinary

veto, vetoes, vetoed, vetoing

Viagra
TM; the generic is sildenafil citrate

vicar
a cleric of the Anglican church (which also has rectors and curates, etc), not of any other denomination.

A priest writes: "A vicar is a person who is the incumbent of a parish, and the term is a job description in the same way that editor is a job description. All editors are journalists but not all journalists are editors. In the same way, all vicars are priests, but not all priests are vicars. Some priests are chaplains; some (like me) are forensic social workers; some are retired; some are shopworkers; some are police officers."

vice-chair, vice-chancellor, vice-president

vice versa

vichyssoise

videotape
noun and verb, although normally shorten to video or tape (the two are interchangeable - Did you video that programme? No, I taped something else)

vie, vying

Villa-Lobos, Heitor
(1887-1959) Brazilian composer

virtuoso
plural virtuosos

virus
not the same as a bacterium, but we often confuse the two; if in doubt, consult the science desk

vis-a-vis
no accent

vocal cords
not chords

Vodafone

voiceover

volcano
plural volcanos

vortex
plural vortices