•  urn (vase); earn (merit) 
     •  vain (futile, conceited); vane (wind indicator); vein (blood vessel) 
     •  valance (drapery); valence (capacity to combine) 
     •  vale (valley); veil (cloth) 
     •  veracious (truthful); voracious (ravenous)
     •  waive (give up); wave (flutter) 
     •  wet (damp, dampen); whet (sharpen)
     •  vial (container); vile (wretched); viol (any of a family of stringed instruments) 
     •  vice (evil, substitute); vise (clamp) 
     •  vicious (malicious); viscous (thick); viscus (singular of viscera) 
     •  villain (scoundrel); villein (serf) 
     •  virtue (goodness); virtu (fine arts) 
     •  wail (cry); wale (ridge) 
     •  wane (decrease); wain (wagon) 
     •  want (lack); wont (custom) 
     •  wean (to end suckling); ween (to think) 
     •  wear (have on); ware (articles) 
     •  weather (climate); wether (sheep); whether (indecision — implies “or not”) 
     •  whither (where); wither (dry up) 
     •  Win. Acceptable as a noun in headlines, but use victory in body copy. Never use win as the opposite of loss, as in win-loss record; instead, say won-lost. 
     •  worst (most inferior); wurst (sausage) 
     •  yew (shrub); ewe (female sheep); you (personal pronoun) 
     •  yoke (join); yolk (yellow of an egg)