16-letter words starting with v
- vinylpyrrolidone — Vinylpyrrolidone is a substance used as a binder in pharmaceuticals.
- viola da braccio — an old musical instrument of the viol family, held against the shoulder like a violin: superseded by the modern viola.
- virgin olive oil — oil from olives that is not processed
- virgin territory — place never visited
- virginia cowslip — a perennial woodland plant (Mertensia virginica) of the borage family, native to E North America and having clusters of blue or purple, bell-shaped flowers
- virginia creeper — a climbing plant, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, of the grape family, native to North America, having palmate leaves, usually with five leaflets, and bluish-black berries.
- virginia tobacco — a type of flue-cured tobacco grown originally in Virginia
- virtual particle — an elementary particle of transitory existence that does not appear as a free particle in a particular situation but that can transmit a force from one particle to another.
- visibility meter — any instrument for measuring the visual range through the atmosphere, as a transmissometer.
- visible spectrum — the range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that is normally visible, from 380 to 760 nm.
- visiting fireman — an influential person accorded special treatment while visiting an organization, industry, city, etc.
- visiting teacher — a teacher in a public school system, assigned to give home instruction to sick or disabled pupils.
- visual interface — (tool, text) (vi) /V-I/, /vi:/, *never* /siks/ A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy for an early BSD release. vi became the de facto standard Unix editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favourite outside of MIT until the rise of Emacs after about 1984. It tends to frustrate new users no end, as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor vice versa, and the default setup provides no indication of which mode the editor is in (one correspondent accordingly reports that he has often heard the editor's name pronounced /vi:l/). Nevertheless it is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 Usenet poll preferred it), and even some Emacs fans resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than the bulkier versions of Emacs). See holy wars.
- visual magnitude — Astronomy. magnitude (def 5a).
- visual-magnitude — size; extent; dimensions: to determine the magnitude of an angle.
- vital statistics — The vital statistics of a population are statistics such as the number of births, deaths, or marriages which take place in it.
- vitamin-enriched — having had vitamins added
- vitruvian scroll — a scroll forming a stylized wave pattern.
- vitruvius pollio — Marcus, flourished 1st century b.c, Roman architect, engineer, and author.
- vocabulary entry — (in dictionaries) a word, phrase, abbreviation, symbol, affix, name, etc., listed with its definition or explanation in alphabetical order or listed for identification after the word from which it is derived or to which it is related.
- voice of america — the division of the United States Information Agency that broadcasts daily programs of news and entertainment throughout the world. Abbreviation: VOA, V.O.A.
- voice production — the use of the voice in order to create particular effects
- volatility index — beta (def 6).
- voluntary helper — a person who aids or assists in a specified function of one's own accord and without compulsion or promise of remuneration
- voluntary muscle — muscle whose action is normally controlled by an individual's will; mainly skeletal muscle, composed of parallel bundles of striated, multinucleate fibers.
- voluntary school — a school that promotes specific religious beliefs and which is funded by a local education authority but was not established by the authority
- voluntary sector — the part of the economy that consists of non-profit-making organizations, as opposed to the public and private sectors
- voluntary worker — a person who serves or acts in a specified function of their own accord and without compulsion or promise of remuneration
- volunteer bureau — an agency that matches up people wishing to do voluntary work with appropriate voluntary organizations
- vulcanized fiber — a leatherlike substance made by compression of layers of paper or cloth that have been treated with acids or zinc chloride, used chiefly for electric insulation.