Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

W

W

(dŭb′’l ū)
,
the twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, is usually a consonant, but sometimes it is a vowel, forming the second element of certain diphthongs, as in few, how. It takes its written form and its name from the repetition of a V, this being the original form of the Roman capital letter which we call U. Etymologically it is most related to v and u. See V, and U. Some of the uneducated classes in England, especially in London, confuse w and v, substituting the one for the other, as weal for veal, and veal for weal; wine for vine, and vine for wine, etc. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 266-268.

Webster 1828 Edition

W

W

is the twenty third letter of the English Alphabet. It takes its written form and its name from the union of two Vs, this being the form of the Roman capital letter which we call U. The name, double u, being given to it from its form or composition, and not from its sound, especially the vowels. W is properly a vowel, a simple sound, formed by opening the mouth with a close circular configuration of the lips. it is precisely the ou of the French, and the u of the Spaniards, Italians and Germans. With the oter vowels it forms diphthongs, which are of easy pronunciation; as in well, want, will, dwell; pronouced ooell, ooant, ooill, dooell. In English, it is always followed by another vowel, except when followed by h, as is when; but this case is an exception only in writing, and not in pronunciation, for h precedes w in utterance; when being pronounced hooen. In Welsh, w, which is sounded as in English is used without another vowel, as in fwl, a fool; dwn, dun; dwb, mortar; gwn, a gun, and a gown.
It is not improbable that the Romans pronouced v as we do w, for their volvo is our wallow; and volo, velle, is the English will, G. wollen. But this is uncertain.The German v has the sound of the English f, and w that of the English v.

W

, at the end of words is often silent after a and o, as in law, saw, low,
sow.
In many words of this kind, w represents the Saxon g; in other cases, it helps to form a diphthong, as in now, vow, new, strew.

Definition 2024

W

W


W U+0057, W
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W
← V
[U+0056] 		Basic Latin X →
[U+0058]
See also: Appendix:Variations of "w"

Translingual

Letter

W upper case (lower case w)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

See also

Symbol

W

  1. (chemistry) Symbol for tungsten.
  2. (metrology) Symbol for watt.
  3. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for tryptophan
  4. (physics) work

See also

Other representations of W:

English

Abbreviation

W

  1. Wednesday
  2. (sports) The number of wins by a team or player
  3. (cricket) wickets
  4. (neologism) Nickname for George W. Bush
  5. west

Derived terms

  • (sports): OTW

See also

Letter

W ‎(upper case, lower case w, plural Ws or W's)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, called double U and written in the Latin script.

See also

American Sign Language

Letter

‎(Stokoe W)

  1. The letter W

Danish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɔbəlveː/, [ˈd̥ʌb̥əlˌveːˀ]

Letter

W ‎(lowercase w)

  1. the twenty-third letter of the Danish alphabet

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ʋeː/

Letter

W ‎(capital, lowercase w)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Dutch alphabet.

Abbreviation

W

  1. Abbreviation of west; west

See also

  • Previous letter: V
  • Next letter: X

Esperanto

Abbreviation

W

  1. Abbreviation of uesto ‎(“west”).

Finnish

Letter

W ‎(upper case, lower case w)

  1. The letter of the Finnish alphabet, called kaksoisvee and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

  • In the Finnish alphabet, W is a variant of V.
  • Used only in loanwords and proper names with old spelling (compare Wirtanen).

See also

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /veː/
  • Homophone: weh

Letter

W ‎(upper case, lower case w)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the German alphabet.

Abbreviation

W

  1. Abbreviation of West; west

German Sign Language

Etymology

Related to the French Sign Language sign for "W".

Production

This one-handed GSL sign is produced as follows:

  • Posture the dominant hand in the “W” shape.

Letter

  1. the letter W

Ido

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /w/

Letter

W ‎(lower case w)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Italian

Pronunciation

  • (name of letter) IPA(key): /vudˈdoppjo/, /ˈdoppjovu/
  • (name of letter, for brevity in common acronyms) IPA(key): /vu/
  • Homophones: V, vu
  • (phonetic realization) IPA(key): [v], [w] (varies depending on the source language of the loanword)

Letter

W m, f ‎(invariable, lower case w)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Latin alphabet, called doppia vu or vu doppia in Italian.

Usage notes

  • The letter W is not considered part of the Italian alphabet. It is found mainly in loanwords.

Symbol

W

  1. viva, evviva ‎(“up with”)

Antonyms

  • M (down with)

See also

Japanese

Alternative forms

Noun

W ‎(katakana ダブル, romaji daburu)

  1. double
    Wプレゼント!

Malay

Pronunciation

  • (Name of letter) IPA(key): [dabliu], [dabəliu], [dabəlju], [dablju]
  • (Phoneme) IPA(key): [w]

Letter

W

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Portuguese

Letter

W ‎(upper case, lower case w)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Saanich

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /w/

Letter

W

  1. The thirty-third letter of the Saanich alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Somali

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /w/, /u̯/, /ʉ̯/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /wæʉ̯/

Letter

W upper case (lower case w)

  1. The twentieth letter of the Somali alphabet, called waw and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

  1. The twentieth letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by N and followed by H.

See also

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈðoble βe/

Letter

W ‎(upper case, lower case w)

  1. The 24th letter of the Spanish alphabet.

Synonyms

w

w


w U+0077, w
LATIN SMALL LETTER W
← v
[U+0076] 		Basic Latin x →
[U+0078]
See also: W, w/, ա, ⴍ, and Appendix:Variations of "w"

Translingual

Alternative forms

  • vv (obsolete)

Letter

w lower case (upper case W)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
  2. The first letter of callsigns allocated to American broadcast television and radio stations east of the Mississippi river.

Pronunciation

Symbol

w

  1. (IPA) voiced labial-velar approximant

See also

Other representations of W:

English

Letter

w ‎(lower case, upper case W, plural w's)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, called double-u and written in the Latin script.

See also

Noun

w

  1. watt
  2. west
  3. witness
  4. work

Adjective

w

  1. (cricket) wide
  2. white

Danish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɔbəlveː/, [ˈd̥ʌb̥əlˌveːˀ]

Letter

w ‎(uppercase W)

  1. the twenty-third letter of the Danish alphabet

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -eː
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ʋeː/

Letter

w ‎(lower case, upper case W)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Dutch alphabet.

See also

  • Previous letter: v
  • Next letter: x

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /du.blə.ve/

Letter

w ‎(uppercase W)

  1. w

Haitian Creole

Pronoun

w

  1. Contraction of ou.

Ido

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /w/

Letter

w ‎(upper case W)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Italian

Noun

w m, f ‎(invariable)

  1. See under W

Japanese

Etymology 1

Short for 笑う ‎(warau, “to laugh”).

Interjection

w

  1. (Internet slang) LOL; an expression of amusement or laughter.
    このバカｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ‎
    Kono baka wwwwwww
    This idiot LOL

Usage notes

w is most often found used multiple times in a row as in the example above.

See also

  • テラワロス (てらわろす, ​terawarosu)
  • (笑) (かっこわら, ​kakko wara)
  • ワロス (​warosu)
  • ワロタ (​warota)
  • 草 (​kusa)

Etymology 2

Near homophone of ダブル ‎(daburu, “double”).

Symbol

w ‎(katakana ダブリュー, romaji daburyū)

  1. Symbol for ダブル ‎(daburu, “double-u”)

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *vъ(n), from Proto-Indo-European *én

Alternative forms

  • we (especially before labial consonants and consonant clusters)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /w/ (before vowels)
  • (silent before consonants)

Preposition

w ‎(with locative)

  1. in

Malay

Letter

w ‎(lower case, upper case W)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Norwegian

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ˈdɔbəlt.ˌʋeː/
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /ʋ/, /v/

Letter

w

  1. The 23rd letter of the Norwegian alphabet.

Usage notes

  • Only appears in loanwords from e.g. German.

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *vъ(n), from Proto-Indo-European *én.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /f/

Preposition

w

  1. (+ locative) in
  2. (+ accusative) into, in
  3. (+ accusative) on (time/date)

Usage notes

Some combinations of sounds, mostly consonant clusters at the beginning of the following noun, require that this preposition is used in longer form we. Examples:

  • we włosach (in the hair)
  • we Wrocławiu (in Wrocław)

But:

  • w Warszawie (in Warsaw)

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Letter

w ‎(lower case, upper case W)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /w/, /gu/, /β/
  • (letter name) IPA(key): /ˈuβe ˈdoβle/, /ˈdoβle be/

Letter

w ‎(lower case, upper case W)

  1. The 24th letter of the Spanish alphabet.

Swedish

Pronunciation

Letter name
  • IPA(key): /ˈdɵbɛlveː/
Phoneme
  • IPA(key): /v/

Letter

w ‎(lower case, upper case W)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Swedish alphabet, called dubbel-ve and written in the Latin script. Previously treated as a variant of the letter v and not as its own independent letter.

Usage notes

  • In blackletter typography, 'w' was commonly used instead of 'v'. When printers (gradually during the 19th century) changed to Latin typography, spelling changed from 'w' to 'v', except in some family names. However, this change does not count as a spelling reform.
  • In many abbreviations, Swedes say 'v' (veh, as in German) instead of 'w' (dubbelveh), e.g. BMW (beh em veh), VW (veh veh), WC (veh seh), WHO (veh haw oh), WWW (veh veh veh).

Turkmen

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /β/

Letter

w ‎(upper case W)

  1. The twenty-seventh letter of the Turkmen alphabet, called we and written in the Latin script.

See also

Welsh

Alternative forms

  • (in negative statements; also in affirmative statements in North Wales): dw
  • (in affirmative statements): rw

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [u]

Verb

w

  1. (colloquial, South Wales) first-person singular present of bod (in affirmative or negative statements)
    W i yn y car.‎ ― I’m in the car.
    W i ddim yn hapus.‎ ― I’m not happy.

Related terms

  • ydw (interrogative)

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈdʌb(əl)juː/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈdʌbə(l)ju/

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