w

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: W, w/, ա, ⴍ, and Appendix:Variations of "w"

w U+0077, w
LATIN SMALL LETTER W
← v
[U+0076] 		Basic Latin x →
[U+0078]
ʷ U+02B7, ʷ
MODIFIER LETTER SMALL W
← ʶ
[U+02B6] 		Spacing Modifier Letters ʸ →
[U+02B8]
ｗ U+FF57, ｗ
FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER W
← ｖ
[U+FF56] 		Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms ｘ →
[U+FF58]

Translingual[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(file)

Letter[edit]

w (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.

Ligature[edit]

w (obsolete)

  1. ⟨uu⟩
  2. ⟨vv⟩

Symbol[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

w

  1. (IPA) a voiced labial-velar (or, more precisely, labialized velar) approximant.
    (superscript ⟨ʷ⟩) labialization ([w]-coloring), or a weak, fleeting or epenthetic [w].
  2. (NAPA, superscript ⟨ʷ⟩) labialization.

Gallery[edit]

  • Letter styles
  • Uppercase and lowercase versions of W, in normal and italic type

    Uppercase and lowercase versions of W, in normal and italic type

  • Uppercase and lowercase W in Fraktur

    Uppercase and lowercase W in Fraktur

See also[edit]

Other representations of W:

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ˈdʌbl̩.juː/, /ˈdʌbə.juː/, /ˈdʌbiː.(j)uː/, /ˈdʌb.juː/, /ˈdʌb.jə/, /ˈdʌb/, /ˈdʌbz/
Audio (US)(file)

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper 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[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Abbreviations.

w

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

Noun[edit]

w

  1. watt
  2. west
  3. witness
  4. work
  5. Abbreviation of win.

Adjective[edit]

w

  1. (cricket) wide
  2. white

Preposition[edit]

w

  1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of with.
    Alternative form: w/
    • 2013, Jessica Burkhart, Home for Christmas (Canterwood Crest; Super Special), New York, NY: Aladdin M!X, →ISBN, page 44:
      This was supposed 2 be a SURPRISE, but the girls got it out of me. ☺ I wanted all of us 2 spend Xmas 2gether. By all, I mean r horses 2. Sooo . . . B, C, G, Z, & D, you have guests waiting @ BC. Zane, Valentino, Scout, Nero, & Polo r there! Now we can ride r horses when we r not volunteering & spend Xmas w them. ☺
  2. with a wing (on the Enneagram)
    When Sharon took the Enneagram test, she came out as a 3w2.

Basque[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

Usage notes[edit]

  • Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

See also[edit]

Danish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Letter[edit]

w (uppercase W)

  1. the twenty-third letter of the Danish alphabet

See also[edit]


Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

  • Previous letter: v
  • Next letter: x

Egyptian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Particle[edit]

wD35

 enclitic

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

Alternative forms[edit]

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of w  
w
w

Noun[edit]

wN23
Z1

 m

  1. area, district
  2. administrative district
  3. nome [since the New Kingdom]

Inflection[edit]

Declension of w (masculine)
singular w
dual wwj
plural ww

Alternative forms[edit]

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of w  
wZ1
N23
w
w w
[Old Kingdom]

Pronoun[edit]

w

 sg 1. enclitic (‘dependent’) pronoun

  1. Alternative form of wj (“I, me”)

References[edit]

Finnish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

Usage notes[edit]

  • In the Finnish alphabet, w is a variant of v.
  • Used only in loanwords and proper names with old spelling.

See also[edit]

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (uppercase W)

  1. w

Fula[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

Usage notes[edit]

See also[edit]

Gothic[edit]

Romanization[edit]

w

  1. Romanization of 𐍅

Haitian Creole[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

w

  1. Contraction of ou.

Hungarian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

Declension[edit]

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative w w-k
accusative w-t w-ket
dative w-nek w-knek
instrumental w-vel w-kkel
causal-final w-ért w-kért
translative w-vé w-kké
terminative w-ig w-kig
essive-formal w-ként w-kként
essive-modal — —
inessive w-ben w-kben
superessive w-n w-ken
adessive w-nél w-knél
illative w-be w-kbe
sublative w-re w-kre
allative w-hez w-khez
elative w-ből w-kből
delative w-ről w-kről
ablative w-től w-ktől
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		w-é w-ké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		w-éi w-kéi
Possessive forms of w
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. w-m w-im
2nd person sing. w-d w-id
3rd person sing. w-je w-i
1st person plural w-nk w-ink
2nd person plural w-tek w-itek
3rd person plural w-jük w-ik

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • w in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Ido[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Letter[edit]

w (upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Indonesian[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Letter[edit]

w (upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

w

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

Italian[edit]

Letter[edit]

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

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

Usage notes[edit]

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

Japanese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Short for (笑) (warai, “laughing”).

Punctuation mark[edit]

w

  1. (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, you're like a goddamn celebrity lol

Usage notes[edit]

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

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Lower Sorbian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Etymology 1[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (upper case W)

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

Etymology 2[edit]

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

Alternative forms[edit]

  • we (especially before labial consonants and consonant clusters)

Preposition[edit]

w (with locative)

  1. in

See also[edit]

Malay[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Maltese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

  1. The twenty-seventh letter of the Maltese alphabet, written in the Latin script.
See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Conjunction[edit]

w

  1. Superseded spelling of u before or after a vowel.

Norwegian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Letter[edit]

w

  1. The 23rd letter of the Norwegian alphabet.

Usage notes[edit]

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

Nupe[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Old Polish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Proto-Slavic *vъ(n), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *in, from Proto-Indo-European *én. First attested in the first half of the 14th century.

Preposition[edit]

w

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

Derived terms[edit]

adverb
preposition

Descendants[edit]

  • Polish: w

References[edit]

Polish[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (upper case W, lower case)

  1. The twenty-eighth letter of the Polish alphabet, called wu and written in the Latin script.
See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Inherited from Old Polish w, from Proto-Slavic *vъ(n), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *in, from Proto-Indo-European *én. First attested in the first half of the 14th century.[1]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Preposition[edit]

w

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Denotes approxmiate position; at [+locative]
    Musi być coś, w czym jesteś dobry? ― There must be something you're good at?
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Used in some noun constructions to denote "in the pattern of" decorated with [+accusative]
    Miała na sobie długą, granatową suknię w złote gwiazdki. ― She was wearing a long, dark blue dress decorated with little gold stars.
    koszula w kratkę ― plaid shirt
    geopard w cętki. ― A spotted leopard
  8. Denotes length of time; within, in the space of, in [+accusative]
    Cały egzamin skończyłem w godzinę. ― I finished the whole exam within an hour.
    Synonyms: w ciągu, w przeciągu, na przestrzeni
  9. 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[edit]

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[edit]

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.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ B. Sieradzka-Baziur, editor (2011–2015), “w”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN
  2. ^ Ida Kurcz (1990), “w”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 650, Kraków; Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 2

Further reading[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter name:

Phoneme:

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

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Romani[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

References[edit]

  • 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[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

Usage notes[edit]

Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

See also[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • 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[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

  1. the 24th letter of the Spanish alphabet

Swedish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter name
Phoneme
  • IPA(key): /v/, (rare, in foreign loanwords) /w/

Letter[edit]

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[edit]

  • 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[edit]

w

  1. (slang) weed (marijuana)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Tagalog[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

  • 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[edit]

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

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

See also[edit]

Letter[edit]

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

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

Further reading[edit]

Turkmen[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Welsh[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

  • (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[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

  1. 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[edit]
  • w cannot be mutated but when representing a vowel, does take h-prothesis, for example with the word wy (“egg”):
Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal h-prothesis
wy unchanged unchanged hwy
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
Derived terms[edit]
  • Digraph sequences: wy
See also[edit]

Noun[edit]

w f (plural ŵau)

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter W.
Mutation[edit]
Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal h-prothesis
w unchanged unchanged hw
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Etymology 2[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Usage notes[edit]

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[edit]

w

  1. (South Wales) first-person singular present colloquial 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[edit]
  • ydw (interrogative)

Yoruba[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Zhuang[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

w (1957–1982 spelling ɯ)

  1. gum (in the eye)

Zulu[edit]

Letter[edit]

w (lower case, upper case W)

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

See also[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=w&oldid=73381353"