The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20130509085124/http://styleguide.yahoo.com/word-list/v
Word List

The Yahoo! Word List

The Yahoo! word list covers terms related to communications, technology, branding, and other topics that our U.S. editors have encountered frequently. Following is a healthy sampling of the full Yahoo! word list. (We update the online list quarterly—see what’s new.)

These are the decisions that Yahoo! has come to after years of writing and editing for the Web. You may naturally make different choices and have different entries, but our word list can be useful as a springboard or as an additional reference.

  • v.
    Acceptable abbreviation for versus in a legal context: Brown v. Board of Education outlawed the racial segregation of public schools in the U.S. attn. Do not use outside a legal context: See “vs.”
    Added on October 22, 2010
  • VGA
    Abbreviation for video graphics array. Abbreviation is always OK.
  • vice president (n.)
    Two words, no hyphen. Capitalize before a name: Vice President Joe Biden. Otherwise lowercase: She would have been the first female vice president. In both cases, it may be abbreviated as VP: VP Joe Biden; the first female VP.
  • vice-presidential (adj.)
    Always hyphenated.
  • vidcast
    One word, lowercase. Short for video podcast.
  • video camera
  • video game
  • video gamer
  • video-chat (adj., v.)
    Added on May 12, 2011
  • videoconference
  • videophone
  • vlog
    One word, lowercase. Short for video blog.
  • voicemail
    One word, lowercase. Not voice mail.
  • voicemail box
  • VoIP
    Abbreviation for voice over Internet Protocol. Abbreviation OK to use after initial explanation.
  • VPN
    Abbreviation for virtual private network. Abbreviation OK to use after initial explanation.
  • vs.
    Acceptable abbreviation for versus when used outside a legal context: The 1938 rematch of Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling made boxing history. attn. Do not use in a legal context: See “v.”
    Added on October 22, 2010

Build your own word list

A word list is an important part of a site’s style guide. It tracks your decisions, helps you enforce them to maintain your site’s voice and editorial standards, and keeps editors from having to make the same kinds of decisions over and over again—possibly coming to contradictory conclusions each time.
Build your own word list