w - synonyms, antonyms, definitions

w

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of w in English

English Online Dictionary. What means w‎? What does w mean?

Translingual

Alternative forms

uu, vv (obsolete)

Pronunciation

Letter

w (upper case W)

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

Ligature

w (obsolete)

⟨uu⟩
⟨vv⟩

Symbol

(IPA) a voiced labial-velar (or, more precisely, labialized velar) approximant.
(superscript ⟨ʷ⟩) labialization ([w]-coloring), or a weak, fleeting or epenthetic [w].
Specifically, on a vowel letter: an [u] off-glide (diphthong) or a protruded (as opposed to compressed) vowel, e.g. Swedish /yʷː/.
(NAPA, superscript ⟨ʷ⟩) labialization.

Gallery

Letter styles

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ˈdʌbl̩.juː/, /ˈdʌbə.juː/, /ˈdʌbiː.(j)uː/, /ˈdʌb.juː/, /ˈdʌb.jə/, /ˈdʌb/, /ˈdʌbz/

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /w/
(letter name) Rhymes: -ʌbjə, -ʌb, -ʌbəlju

Letter

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

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

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Abbreviations.

(stenoscript) the sound sequence /aʊ̯/.
(stenoscript) Abbreviation of we.
(stenoscript) Abbreviation of were.
(stenoscript) Abbreviation of who and its inflection whom.

Noun

watt
west
witness
work
Abbreviation of win.

Adjective

(cricket) wide
white

Preposition

(Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of with.
Alternative form: w/
with a wing (on the Enneagram)
When Sharon took the Enneagram test, she came out as a 3w2.

Basque

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ube bikoi̯t͡s̻/, [u.β̞e̞ β̞i.ko̞i̯t͡s̻]

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The twenty-fourth letter of the Basque alphabet, called uve bikoitz and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

Danish

Pronunciation

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

Letter

w (uppercase W)

the twenty-third letter of the Danish alphabet

Dutch

Pronunciation

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

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The twenty-third letter of the Dutch alphabet.

Egyptian

Pronunciation

(modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /uː/
- Conventional anglicization: u

Particle

enclitic

(Old Egyptian) not; used to negate the subjunctive or prospective in wishes and commands

Alternative forms

Noun

area, district
administrative district
nome [since the New Kingdom]

Inflection

Alternative forms

Pronoun

sg 1. enclitic (‘dependent’) pronoun

Alternative form of wj (“I, me”)

References

Erman, Adolf; Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[1], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, page 243.1–243.8
James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 51, 198, 415.

Finnish

Etymology

The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on Swedish, German and Latin. No earlier script is known. See the Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, and w for development of the glyph itself.

Pronunciation

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

A 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.

French

Pronunciation

(letter name) IPA^(key): /du.blə.ve/

Letter

w (uppercase W)

Fula

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /w/

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

A letter of the Fula alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Common to all varieties of Fula (Fulfulde / Pulaar / Pular).

Gothic

Romanization

Romanization of 𐍅

Haitian Creole

Pronoun

Contraction of ou.

Hungarian

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): [ˈv]
(letter name): IPA^(key): [ˈduplɒveː]

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

A letter of the extended Hungarian alphabet, called dupla vé and written in the Latin script.

Declension

Ido

Pronunciation

(context pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w/
(letter name) IPA^(key): /we/

Letter

w (upper case W)

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

Indonesian

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

(context pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w/
(letter name) IPA^(key): /wɛ/

Letter

w (upper case W)

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

Etymology 2

Pronoun

(text messaging, slang) Abbreviation of gue.
Synonym: gw

Italian

Letter

w f or m (invariable, lower case, upper case W)

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.

Japanese

Etymology

Short for (笑) (warai, “laughing”).

Punctuation mark

(Internet slang, often repeated) LOL; an expression of amusement or laughter.
このバカｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ(´∀`*)
kono baka ｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ (´ ∀ ` *)
you silly fool lol

ちょ ｗｗｗ お前(まえ)のツイート伸(の)びすぎ ｗｗｗ 有(ゆう)名(めい)人(じん)じゃん ｗｗｗｗｗ
cho ｗｗｗ omae no tsuīto nobisugi ｗｗｗ yūmeijin jan ｗｗｗｗｗ
dude, your tweet's getting mad attention lmaoo, aren’t you a celebrity lol

Usage notes

w can be used multiple times in a row, as in the examples above; it is sometimes repeated to quite lengthy extents.

Derived terms

草(くさ) (kusa)

Related terms

(笑(わらい)) (warai), (藁(わら)) (wara)
ワロス (warosu), ワロタ (warota), ワラタ (warata)

Kashubian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈf/
Syllabification: w

Etymology 1

The Kashubian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Kashubian alphabet article on Wikipedia for more, and w for development of the glyph itself.

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The thirtieth letter of the Kashubian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vъ(n).

Preposition

Denotes inessive position; in, at, on
Denotes illative movement; into, in, to
Denotes an amount or number; in, as, in a group of
Denotes position in time; in, on

Alternative forms

we, wew

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (before most vowels) /w/
Silent before consonants and word-initially before ⟨o⟩ and ⟨u⟩ (but not ⟨ó⟩)

Etymology 1

Letter

w (upper case W)

The thirtieth letter of the Lower Sorbian alphabet, called wej and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

From Proto-Slavic *vъ(n), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁én.

Alternative forms

we (especially before labial consonants and consonant clusters)

Preposition

w (with locative)

Malay

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

Maltese

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /w/

Etymology 1

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The twenty-seventh letter of the Maltese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Conjunction

Superseded spelling of u before or after a vowel.

Navajo

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /w/, /ɣ/

Letter

w (upper case W)

A letter of the Navajo alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

The letter ⟨w⟩ is used for the phoneme /w/, but also for /ɣ/ before a back vowel, where that is pronounced [ɣʷ].

Norwegian

Pronunciation

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

Letter

The 23rd letter of the Norwegian alphabet.

Usage notes

Only appears in loanwords from e.g. German.

Nupe

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /w/

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The twenty-seventh letter of the Nupe alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Old Polish

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vъ(n). First attested in the first half of the 14th century.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /v/, /f/

Preposition

denotes illative movement; into [+accusative]
1. denotes contact because of movement, i.e. to bump into something [+accusative]
denotes allative movement; to, towards [+accusative]
used in temporal constructions to create adverbs from nouns [+accusative]
denotes a goal or aim; for [+accusative] or [+locative]
denotes function; in the role of; as [+accusative] or [+locative]
denotes a manner; in [+accusative] or [+locative]
denotes instrumental usage [+accusative] or [+locative]
used with some nouns to denote physical or temporal measure [+accusative] or [+locative]
denotes the amount of participants [+accusative]
denotes a change of state; into [+accusative]
denotes the intended addressee of a statement; at [+accusative] or [+locative]
used in some syntactical constructions with verbs [+accusative]
denotes inessive position; in [+locative]
denotes position in time; in [+locative]
denotes cause; because of [+locative]
used in some noun constructions to denote "in the pattern of" [+locative]
denotes state; in [+locative]

Derived terms

Descendants

Polish: w, we
Silesian: w, we, wy

References

B. Sieradzka-Baziur, editor (2011–2015), “w”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Polish

Etymology 1

The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the history of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, and w for development of the glyph itself.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /v/, or IPA^(key): /f/ if devoiced

Letter

w (upper case W, lower case)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Polish alphabet, called wu and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Polish w.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /v/, /f/

Preposition

Denotes inessive position; in, at, on [+locative]
Od roku mieszkam we Francji. ― I've lived in France for a year.

On siedzi w więzieniu za morderstwo. ― He's in prison for murder.

Widziałam cię wczoraj w pociągu. ― I saw you on the train yesterday.
Denotes position in time; in, on [+locative] or sometimes [+accusative]
Urodziłem się w czerwcu. ― I was born in June.

W niedzielę zawsze chodzimy do kościoła. ― We always go to church on Sundays.

W zeszłym roku podróżowaliśmy po Europie. ― Last year we travelled around Europe.
Denotes state; in [+locative]
Byłem w szoku po wypadku. ― I was in shock after the accident.

Kupił dziewczynie naszyjnik w postaci serca. ― He bought his girlfriend a necklace in the shape of a heart.
Denotes approxmiate position; at [+locative]
Musi być coś, w czym jesteś dobry? ― There must be something you're good at?
Denotes illative movement; into, in, to [+accusative]
Włożył koszulę w spodnie. ― He tucked his shirt into his trousers.

Uderzyłem go prosto w twarz. ― I hit him right in the face.

Skręć w lewo za pocztą. ― Turn (to the) left after the post office.
Denotes a change of state; into [+accusative]
Stary młyn przekształcono w nowoczesne mieszkania. ― They turned the old mill into modern apartments.

Pokrój ziemniaki w małe kawałki. ― Cut the potatoes into small pieces.
Used in some noun constructions to denote "in the pattern of" decorated with [+accusative]
koszula w kratkę ― plaid shirt

geopard w cętki. ― A spotted leopard

Miała na sobie długą, granatową suknię w złote gwiazdki. ― She was wearing a long, dark blue dress decorated with little gold stars.
Denotes length of time; within, in the space of, in [+accusative]
Synonyms: w ciągu, w przeciągu, na przestrzeni

Cały egzamin skończyłem w godzinę. ― I finished the whole exam within an hour.
Denotes an amount or number; in, as, in a group of [+accusative]
Zróbmy coś fajnego, tylko w dwójkę. ― Let's do something fun, just the two of us.

Byliśmy w piątkę. ― We were in a group of five/There were five of us.

W tę grę można grać w cztery osoby. ― You can play this game as a foursome.

Usage notes

Some combinations of sounds, chiefly consonant clusters at the beginning of the following noun, require that this preposition be used in the vocalized form we. Examples:

we włosach ― in the hair
we Wrocławiu ― in Wrocław

But:

w Warszawie ― in Warsaw

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), w is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 3570 times in scientific texts, 4769 times in news, 3819 times in essays, 2589 times in fiction, and 1569 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 16316 times, making it the 1st most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.

References

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Letter name:

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈda.bli.u/, [ˈda.blju] (dáblio)

Phoneme:

IPA^(key): /w/, /v/ (used in loanwords, varies according to the source language of the borrowed term)

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

Romani

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

A letter used to represent the voiced labial-velar approximant (/w/) in the International Standard orthography.

References

Yūsuke Sumi (2018), “w”, in ニューエクスプレス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, →ISBN, page 16

Romanian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /v/, /w/, /u/

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called dublu ve or dublu vî and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

Silesian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /v/, IPA^(key): /wu/
Rhymes: --u
Syllabification: w

Etymology 1

The Silesian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Silesian language article on Wikipedia for more, and w for development of the glyph itself.

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The thirtieth letter of the Silesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Polish w.

Preposition

Denotes inessive position; in, at, on [+locative]
Synonym: (with some countries and regions) na
Denotes illative movement; into, in, to [+accusative]
Denotes a position or post, or a position in a social hierarchy; in [+locative]
Used in some noun constructions to denote "in the pattern of" decorated with [+accusative]
Denotes worn item; dressed in [+locative]
Denotes length of time; within, in the space of, in [+accusative]
Denotes position in time; in, on [+locative]
Denotes an amount or number; in, as, in a group of [+accusative]

Alternative forms

we, wy

Spanish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (phoneme) /w/, /ɡw/, /β/
IPA^(key): (letter name) /ˌube ˈdoble/ [ˌu.β̞e ˈð̞o.β̞le]
IPA^(key): (letter name) /ˈdoble ˌbe/ [ˈd̪o.β̞le ˌβ̞e]

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

the 24th letter of the Spanish alphabet

Swedish

Pronunciation

Letter name

IPA^(key): /ˈdɵbɛlveː/

Phoneme

IPA^(key): /v/, (rare, in foreign loanwords) /w/
- Homophone: v (in most positions)

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

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 (ve, as in German) instead of w (dubbelve), e.g. BMW (be emm ve), VW (ve ve), WC (ve se), WHO (ve hå o), WWW (ve ve ve).

Noun

(slang) weed (marijuana)

References

Swedish Police Authority list of drug slang

Tagalog

Etymology

From English w. Each pronunciation has a different source:

Filipino alphabet pronunciation is influenced by English w.
Abakada alphabet pronunciation is influenced by Baybayin character ᜏ (wa).

Formerly, the letter u was used to represent /w/ in the Spanish-based orthography.

Pronunciation

Hyphenation: w
(letter name, Filipino alphabet): IPA^(key): /ˈdobolju/, [ˈdo.bol.jʊ]
(letter name, Abakada alphabet): IPA^(key): /wa/, [wɐ]
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /w/, [w]
Rhymes: -obolju, -a

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W, Baybayin spelling ᜇᜓᜊᜓᜎ᜔ᜌᜓ)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Tagalog alphabet (Filipino alphabet), called dobolyu and written in the Latin script.

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W, Baybayin spelling ᜏ)

The nineteenth letter of the Tagalog alphabet (Abakada alphabet), called wa and written in the Latin script.

Turkmen

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /β/

Letter

w (upper case W)

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

Welsh

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

(with grave accent to indicate otherwise unpredictable short vowel): ẁ
(with acute accent to indicate unusually stressed short vowel): ẃ
(with circumflex to indicate otherwise unpredictable or unusually stressed long vowel or disyllabicity): ŵ
(with diaeresis to indicate disyllabicity): ẅ

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /uː/

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Welsh alphabet, called w and written in the Latin script. It is preceded by u and followed by y.

Mutation

w cannot be mutated but when representing a vowel, does take h-prothesis, for example with the word wy (“egg”):

Derived terms

Digraph sequences: wy

Noun

w f (plural ŵau)

The name of the Latin-script letter W.

Mutation

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

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

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʊ/, /w/

Usage notes

This word is usually found in conjunction with the pronoun i and so may be pronounced as part of a diphthong /ʊi̯/ or as /wiː/.

Verb

(South Wales) first-person singular present colloquial of bod (in affirmative or negative statements)

Related terms

ydw (interrogative)

White Hmong

Noun

quail

Verb

scatter

Yoruba

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /w/
(letter name): IPA^(key): /wí/

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

The twenty-fourth letter of the Yoruba alphabet, called wí and written in the Latin script.

Zhuang

Pronunciation

(Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /ʔɯ˨˦/
Tone numbers: w¹
Hyphenation: w

Noun

w (1957–1982 spelling ɯ)

gum (in the eye)

Zulu

Letter

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

w

w

Translingual

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Letter

Ligature

Symbol

Gallery

See also

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Letter

Derived terms

See also

Etymology 2

Noun

Adjective

Preposition

Basque

Pronunciation

Letter

Usage notes

See also

Danish

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Egyptian

Pronunciation

Particle

Alternative forms

Noun

Inflection

Alternative forms

Pronoun

References

Finnish

Etymology

Pronunciation

Letter

Usage notes

See also

French

Pronunciation

Letter

Fula

Pronunciation

Letter

Usage notes

See also

Gothic

Romanization

Haitian Creole

Pronoun

Hungarian

Pronunciation

Letter

Declension

See also

Further reading

Ido

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Indonesian

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Etymology 2

Pronoun

Italian

Letter

Usage notes