ve

Clipping of English Venda.

ve

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Venda.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Venda terms

Borrowed from Russian вэ (vɛ).

ve (plural ves)

1. The name of the Cyrillic script letter В / в.

First proposed by Philologus in the July 1864 Ladies' Repository, with possessive vis and objective vim, as an alternative to using "he or she," singular they, or one in sentences without a specified gender.^[1] In 1970, Varda One proposed ve, vis and objective ver in a feminist article titled "Manglish."^[2] Greg Egan used the pronouns throughout the novels Distress (1995) and Diaspora (1998).

• (US) IPA^(key): /vi/
• Homophones: V, v, vee
• Rhymes: -iː

ve (third-person singular, nominative case, accusative ver, possessive adjective vis, possessive noun vers, reflexive verself)

1. (rare, epicene, nonstandard) Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, equivalent to singular they.
   • [1984, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, reprint edition, New York: Penguin Books, published 1986, →ISBN, pages 425–426:

     And stop calling it 'it': yer got yer one great invention, remember Holmes? The neuter personal pronoun; ve/ver/vis, I am not his, vis/ve/ver, nor am I for her, ver/vis/ve, a pronoun for me, (slopping another tin of water out ready).]

   • 1995, Greg Egan, Distress, reprint edition, London: Phoenix, published 1996, →ISBN, page 223:

     Ve held up vis right hand; I reached down and took it, and began to haul ver up; ve shook vis head impatiently.

   • 1997, Greg Egan, Diaspora, reprint edition, New York: HarperPrism, published 1998, →ISBN, page 52:

     Yatima felt distinctly stretched by the process—but vis symbols were still connected to each other in the same way as before. Ve was still verself.

• see Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns

ve

2. Pronunciation spelling of we.
   • 1872, Charles Camden, “The Travelling Menagerie”, in George Mac Donald, editor, Good Words for the Young, London: Strahan & Co., […], chapter V (A Tiger Hunt in England), page 208, column 1:

     Ve vill go to de Sheafen Farm, and ve vill stay at de Sheafen Farm, is it not?

   • 2000 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Yule Ball”, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter; 4), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 363:

     But ve have grounds larger even than these – though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them.

   • 2011, Roberta C. M. DeCaprio, chapter 9, in A Rose in Amber, Wild Rose Press, →ISBN:

     “My calculations predict another day or so. Ve vill be docking in Liverpool.”

   • 2016, Sara Buttsworth, Maartje Abbenhuis, War, Myths, and Fairy Tales - Page 103:

     In Johnny Canuck, a Nazi guard says: “Look, gentlemen of der turd reich. Ve haf captured Johnny Canuck and all his friends.”

• ve haf vays of making you talk

• E.V., EV, Ev, eV, μeV

From Proto-Oceanic *poli, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bəli, from Proto-Austronesian *bəli.

ve

1. to buy

• Lackey, W.J.. & Boerger, B.H. (2021), “Reexamining the Phonological History of Oceanic's Temotu subgroup”, in Oceanic Linguistics.

From Old Tosk *vae, from Old Albanian vōe (still at Malagija),^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”). Orel, citing Bopp, Camarda and Çabej, argues the Old Albanian word descends from a borrowing from Latin ōvum.^[2] The PIE etymology was earlier supported by Norbert Jokl.

• vo — Gheg, vø — Shkodër
• vö — Arbëresh

ve f (plural ve, definite veja, definite plural vetë)

1. egg

   Synonym: vezë

• ve fërgesë (“fried egg”)
• ve peshku (“fish roe”)
• ve surbull (“soft-boiled egg”)
• ve llukë (“rotten egg”)

From Proto-Albanian *widewā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ (compare English widow, Latin vidua).

• vejë

i ve (feminine e ve, feminine plural të veja)

1. widowed

ve f (plural va)

1. widow, widower

   Synonyms: vejanë, vejushë

Possibly related to Yoruba rè

• IPA^(key): /vè/

vè

1. to go

• àvè (“the act of going”)

• B. Oshodi, The HTS (High Tone Syllable) in Arigidi: An Introduction, in the Nordic Journal of African Studies 20(4): 263–275 (2011)
• Boluwaji Oshodi (December 2011), A Reference Grammar of Arigidi, Montem Paperbacks, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbe]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [ˈve]
• Rhymes: -e

ve f (plural ves)

1. The name of the Latin script letter V/v.

• In some dialects of Catalan, the sounds associated with the letter b and the letter v are the same: [β]. In order to differentiate the names be and ve in those dialects, the letters are often called be alta (“high B”) and ve baixa (“low V”).

• ve baixa
• ve doble

ve

1. third-person singular present indicative of venir

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɛ]

• Audio:

  (file)

ve

1. alternative form of v (“in”)

• The more usual form is v, while ve is used before words starting with f, v, w and certain consonant clusters.

From Old Norse vei, from Proto-Germanic *wai.

• IPA^(key): /veːˀ/, [ˈʋeːˀ]
• Rhymes: -eːˀ

3=ve

ve (singular definite veen, plural indefinite veer)

1. pain
2. contraction of labour, birth pang

• “ve” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “ve” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

ve

1. water

• Taber, M. (1993). Toward a better understanding of the indigenous languages of southwestern Maluku. Oceanic Linguistics. 32:2. pp. 389-441. Cited in: "East Masela" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

Borrowed from German weh, from Proto-Germanic *wai, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (“oh!; woe!; alas!”). Compare Yiddish וויי (vey), Dutch wee, Latin vae, Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí), Spanish guay, Italian guai, dialectal French vé, Welsh gwae, Latvian vai, Persian وای (vây), Arabic وَيْل (wayl).

• IPA^(key): /ve/

• Audio 1:

  (file)

• Audio 2:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: ve

ve

1. alas, woe

• “ve”, in Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto [Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto], 2020, →ISBN
• “ve”, in Reta Vortaro [Online Dictionary] (in Esperanto), 1997-2026

Ultimately, from Latin vē.

• IPA^(key): /veː/

ve n (genitive singular ves, plural ve)

1. The name of the Latin script letter V/v.

• (archaic) vaff, vavv

• (Latin-script letter names) bókstavur; a / fyrra a, á, be, de, edd, e, eff, ge, há, i / fyrra i, í / fyrra í, jodd, ká, ell, emm, enn, o, ó, pe, err, ess, te, u, ú, ve, seinna i, seinna í, seinna a, ø

v^e (plural v^es)

1. abbreviation of veuve

ve

1. inflection of ver:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

From French ver (“worm”).

• IPA^(key): /ve/

ve

1. worm

• IPA^(key): /ve/, /vɛ/

From Esperanto ve, from German weh. Compare also Latin vae.

ve

1. alas, oh dear

   Ve! Me obliviis la furnelo acendite!

   Oh dear! I forgot the stove on!

From v +‎ -e.

ve (plural ve-i)

1. The name of the Latin script letter V/v.

• Latin script letter names: literi: a · be · ce · che · de · e · fe · ge · he · i · je · ke · le · me · ne · o · pe · que · re · se · she · te · u · ve · we · xe · ye · ze ^[edit]

From Dutch vee.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛ/, [ˈfɛ]

Although this letter is officially named and pronounced '/vɛ/' in Indonesian, but nowadays, it is more common to hear it pronounced as '/vi/' just like its English name, 'vee' rather than 'vè'. This might be because most regional languages in Indonesia do not have "/f/"-like sound naturally, which can lead into confusion between the names of the letters "p" and "v". In order to differentiate the name of both letters, the letter "v" gets colloquially renamed to its English name, 'vee'.

vè (plural ve-ve)

1. The name of the Latin script letter V/v.

• vi (Standard Malay)

• (Latin-script letter names) huruf; a, be, ce, de, e, ef, ge, ha, i, je, ka, el, em, en, o, pe, ki, er, es, te, u, ve, we, eks, ye, zet

• “ve”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

• IPA^(key): /ve/
• Rhymes: -e
• Hyphenation: ve

ve

1. alternative form of vi (“to you”)

   Ve lo consiglio ― I recommend it (to you)

   Ve ne ne sarei molto grato ― It would be nice of you

• Used when followed by a third-person direct object clitic (lo, la, li, le, or ne).

ve

1. Rōmaji transcription of ゔぇ
2. Rōmaji transcription of ゑ゙
3. Rōmaji transcription of ヴェ
4. Rōmaji transcription of ヹ

ve

1. particle used after a verb similar in function to English "to". E.g. "ha ve" = "to winnow"
2. Relativizer particle

ve

1. nonstandard spelling of vê̄

• 《汉语拼音方案》 (Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet) defines a standard pronunciation for each letter in Hanyu Pinyin with Zhuyin. In the case of V, it is defined as ㄪㄝ, using the otherwise-obsolete initial ㄪ (vō /⁠v⁠/). This is one of the only instances of the letter being used in standard Pinyin.
• 《汉语拼音方案》 (Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet) defines a standard pronunciation for each letter in Hanyu Pinyin with Zhuyin. ㄝ (/⁠ɛ⁠/) typically only occurs in syllables with an initial glide (e.g. ㄧㄝ (-ie /⁠i̯ɛ⁠/)), where it is romanized as e. When it occurs in syllables without an initial glide, however, it is romanized as ê in order to distinguish it from ㄜ (-e /⁠ɤ⁠/). Such instances are rare, and are only found in interjections or neologisms.
• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

From Old Irish at·tá,^[1] cognate with Irish bí and Scottish Gaelic bi. The form ve is from Old Irish buith and is cognate with the verbal nouns Irish bheith and Scottish Gaelic bhith

• IPA^(key): /veː/

ve (past independent va, present independent ta, future independent bee, verbal noun ve)

1. to be

ve

1. alternative form of we (“we”)

• IPA^(key): /ve/
• Rhymes: -e

ve

1. you (formal or plural, reflexive or dative or accusative)

From Old Norse vé, from Proto-Germanic *wīhą.

ve n (definite singular veet, indefinite plural ve, definite plural vea)

1. (historical, in Norse times) holy place, place of offering

• varg i veum

Male given names:

Female given names:

From Old Norse vei, væ, from Proto-Germanic *wai.

ve

1. woe!

• våla

From Old Norse vé, from Low German. Compare the interjection above.

ve m (definite singular veen, indefinite plural vear, definite plural veane)

1. birth pang

   Synonym: (føde)ri

2. pain, longing

   ve og vel ― welfare (literally, “pain and wellness”)

• fødselsve

• “ve” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

ve f (plural ves)

1. vee (the letter v, V)

• ve dobla

See va.

ve

1. locative singular of va (“letter 'v'”)

ve (Cyrillic spelling ве)

1. (Kajkavian) now

   Synonym: sada

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vàsъ. Cognates include Macedonian ве (ve) and Bulgarian ви (vi).

• vas (standard)

ve ? (Cyrillic spelling ве)

1. (Torlakian) you (short accusative plural of ti (“I”))

• Not all forms of Torlakian use the pronoun ve, some instead use vi.

• Radmila Žugić, Rečnik govora jablaničkog kraja, Institut za srpski jezik SANU, Beograd, 2005. page 34
• Ljubisav Ćirić, Govori Ponišavlja, Institut za srpski jezik SANU, Beograd, 1999. page 127

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ʋéː/

vẹ̑

1. you (feminine and neuter plural, more than two)
2. (formal) you (feminine and neuter singular)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbe/ [ˈbe]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: ve
• Homophone: be

See v.

ve f (plural ves)

1. The name of the Latin script letter V/v.

   Synonyms: uve, ve corta

Inherited from Latin videt and vidē, respectively the third person singular present active indicative and second person singular present active imperative of videō.

ve

1. inflection of ver:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative
   3. second-person singular voseo imperative

Inherited from Latin vāde, second person singular present active imperative of vādō.

ve

1. second-person singular imperative of ir

• The voseo imperative of ir is typically replaced with the imperative of andar, which is andá.^[1]

• “ve”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

From Old Swedish ve, from Old Norse vei, væ, from Proto-Germanic *wai. Cognate with Danish ve, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹 (wai), German weh, Dutch wee, English woe. The noun sense is likely a semantic loan from Middle Low German wê.

• IPA^(key): /veː/
• Rhymes: -eː
• Homophone: V (the letter)

ve

1. woe! (cursed be)

   Ve dig! ― Woe to you!

   Ve mig! ― Woe is me!

   • 1891, Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berlings saga [The Saga of Gösta Berling]‎^[3], Frithiof Hellbergs förlag, accessed at Litteraturbanken.se, archived from the original on 10 February 2026:

     Men ve den, för [vars] skull skogen suckar och bergen [gråter]!

     But woe to him for whose sake the forest sighs and the mountains weep!

   • 2000, 1973 års bibelkommission [The Swedish Bible Commission of 1973], “Lukasevangeliet [Luke] 6:26”, in Bibel 2000‎^[4], © Svenska Bibelsällskapet, accessed at Bible.com, archived from the original on 10 February 2026:

     Ve er när alla berömmer er.

     Woe to you when everyone praises you.

ve n (indeclinable)

1. woe, misery

   Ve och fasa!

   Horror of horrors!

   (literally, “Woe and horror!”)

• veklaga
• vemod
• verop

• ack och ve
• väl och ve

• “ve”, in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker [Dictionaries of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• ve in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

• ev.

Borrowed from Spanish ve, the Spanish name of the letter V / v.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈve/ [ˈvɛ]
  • IPA^(key): (with nativization) /ˈbe/ [ˈbɛ]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: ve

ve (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜒ)

1. (historical) the name of the Latin script letter V/v, in the Abecedario

   Synonym: (in the Filipino alphabet) vi

• IPA^(key): /ve/

ve

1. The name of the Latin script letter V/v.

From Ottoman Turkish و (ve), from Arabic وَ (wa).

ve

1. and

• (Latin-script letter names) harf; a, be, ce, çe, de, e, fe, ge, yumuşak ge, he, ı, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, ö, pe, re, se, şe, te, u, ü, ve, ye, ze

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [vɛ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [vɛ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [vɛ˧˧] ~ [jɛ˧˧]
• Homophone: de

Attested as ue in the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum (1651).

Probably onomatopoeic, from the cry of the cicada.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “do the "cicada" and "tick" senses have a common etymology?”)

(classifier con) ve • (蟡, 爲, 為) (phonemic reduplicative ve ve)

1. cicada

   Synonym: ve sầu

2. tick

Borrowed from French revers.

(classifier cái) ve

1. lapel

   vuốt thẳng cái ve áo ― to get one's lapel fixed

Borrowed from French vert.

ve

1. green

   tường quét ve ― a green-painted wall

Attested and glossed in Latin as lagena ~ vasculum in Pierre Pigneau de Béhaine's Dictionarium anamitico-latinum.^[1] Often considered to be from French verre (“glass (substance); objects made of glass”).

Unclear relationship to ue in đạn ue, which is attested and glossed in Portuguese as munição (“ammunition”) ~ perdigotos (“pellet”), in Alexandre de Rhodes's Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum,^[2] and seemingly became tangled with verre in later period.

ve • (䃣, 𡐮)

1. small bottle or jar
2. (only in compounds) glass (substance)

ve • (𢠿)

1. (chiefly in compounds) to flirt