W

letter of the Latin alphabet

W is the twenty-third (number 23) letter in the Latin alphabet. It is pronounced as "double-(you/yoo)"[note 1] or "double-vee". It is the only letter with three syllables.

W
W w
Writing D'Nealian cursive forms of W as used in the US
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and Logographic
Unicode valueU+0057, U+0077
Alphabetical position23
History
Development
G43
T3
Time period~600 to present
Other
The Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDd
EeFfGgHhIiJj
KkLlMmNnOoPp
QqRrSsTtUuVv
WwXxYyZz

In words like away, what, write and women, the W is a consonant. In words like draw, few, low and cwm, the W is a vowel.

Meanings for W

  • On calendars, W is most times a short letter for Wednesday.
  • In chemistry, W is the symbol for tungsten, after its German name, Wolfram.
  • In news story writing, the "five W's" are who, what, when, where and why.
  • In Electricity, W stands for watts
  • In particle physics, W stands for the W boson. Some words sound as if they start with an R, but they start with a silent W, like wrong, and wreck, which is why you never hear the W at the beginning of these words, as you can see. Note that only the R sound can be heard, because it comes after the silent W starting the words.
  • In slang, W stands for Win.

Notes