Words Ending With V — Scrabble & Word Games

Words ending in V are essentially nonexistent in English — English orthography follows the rule that V cannot end a word; it always gets a silent E companion (GIVE, LOVE, SAVE, HAVE). The only V-ending accepted English words are obscure borrowings and musical markings: DEV, LAV, REV, TAV, VAV, VROW (variants).

In Scrabble, V-ending words are the second-rarest category after Q-endings. V is 4 points, so the rare V-enders are valuable. Tournament players memorise: AVE (not V-ending), DEV, LEV (Bulgarian currency, plural LEVA), REV, SHIV, STIV, TAV, VAV.

In crosswords, V-endings are almost never valid answers. The orthographic no-V-at-word-end rule is one of the strictest patterns in English spelling, traceable back to Middle English. V-ending words are primarily recent 20th-century coinages and Hebrew / Slavic borrowings.