List of acronyms: W

This list contains acronyms, initialisms, and pseudo-blends  that begin with the letter W.

For the purposes of this list:

• acronym = an abbreviation pronounced as if it were a word, e.g., SARS = severe acute respiratory syndrome, pronounced to rhyme with cars
• initialism = an abbreviation pronounced wholly or partly using the names of its constituent letters, e.g., CD = compact disc, pronounced cee dee
• pseudo-blend = an abbreviation whose extra or omitted letters mean that it cannot stand as a true acronym, initialism, or portmanteau (a word formed by combining two or more words).

(a) = acronym, e.g.: SARS – (a) severe acute respiratory syndrome

(i) = initialism, e.g.: CD – (i) compact disc

(p) = pseudo-blend, e.g.: UNIFEM – (p) United Nations Development Fund for Women

(s) = symbol (none of the above, representing and pronounced as something else; for example: MHz – megahertz)

Some terms are spoken as either acronym or initialism, e.g., VoIP, pronounced both as voyp and V-O-I-P.

(Main list of acronyms)

• W
  • (s) Tungsten (from German Wolfram)
  • (i) Watt
  • (i) Wednesday
  • (i) West
  • (i) Games Won in sporting competitions

W0–9

• W3C – (i) World Wide Web Consortium
• w/ – (p) With: Software w/Documentation. Typically used in advertising or to abbreviate headings. Never used in formal body text.

WA

• wa – (s) Walloon language (ISO 639-1 code)
• WA
  • (s) Namibia (FIPS 10-4 country code; from West Africa)
  • Washington state (postal symbol)
  • Western Australia (postal symbol)
  • (i) World Archery (Federation)
  • World Athletics
• WAAC – (i) Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (Britain) (World War I UK)
• WAAF – (i) Women's Auxiliary Air Force (World War II UK)
• WAC
  • (a) Western Athletic Conference
  • (i) Women's Auxiliary Corps (World War II Canada)
  • Women's Army Corps (World War II U.S.)
• WACC – (a) Weighted Average Cost of Capital (accounting)
• WACS – What-A-Cartoon! Show
• WAD – (a) Weapons Alert Designator
• WAGGGS – (a) World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
• WAGMI - (a) We're All Gonna Make It
• WAGs – (p) Wives And Girlfriends (most notably of England national football team players at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, although the term existed earlier)
• WAK – (s) Wake Island (ISO 3166 trigram, obsolete 1986)
• WAL – see entry
• WAN – (a) Wide area network
• WAP – (a) Wireless Application Protocol
• WAPIMA – (a) What a pain in my ass
• WAR – (a) With All Respect
• WAsP – (p) Short form of WAAAAP (Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program)
• WASP
  • (a) White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
  • Wide Angle Search for Planets
  • Women Airforce Service Pilots
• WAYP – (a) White And Yellow Pages

WB

• Wb – (s) Weber
• WB
  • (i) Warner Bros.
  • Welcome Back (Internet shorthand)
• WBA
  • (i) Warner Bros. Animation
  • West Bromwich Albion (F.C.)
  • World Boxing Association
• WBC – (i) World Boxing Council
• WBE – (i) Work Breakdown Element
• WBIT – (i) Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament
• WBO – (i) World Boxing Organization
• WbW
  • with best wishes
  • white boy wasted

WC

• WC – (i) Water Closet – Winston Churchill – World Cup (sports)
• WCBO – (i) World Chess Boxing Organisation
• WCBP – (i) World Center for Birds of Prey
• WCCW – (i) World Class Championship Wrestling
• WCL – (i) World Confederation of Labour
• WCPA – (p) World Constitution and Parliament Association
• WCS – (i) Weapon Control Status – Wildlife Conservation Society
• WCW – (i) World Championship Wrestling
• WCWCC – (p) World Committee for a World Constitutional Convention
• WCWS – (i) Women's College World Series, the final phase of the NCAA Division I softball tournament in the US

WD

• WDC – (i) Western Design Center – World Data Center
• WDWR – Walt Disney World Resort
• WDIN – Wildlife Disease Information Node

WE

• WEBS – (a) Weapon Effectiveness Battle Simulation
• WEC – (i) World Extreme Cagefighting
• WEEE – (i) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
• WEF – (a) World Economic Forum
• WEIRD – (a) Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic (cultural identifier of a disproportionate number of psychology test subjects)
• WEM - (a) West Edmonton Mall
• WEU – (i) Western European Union
• WEZ – (a/i) Weapon Engagement Zone

WF

• WF – (s) Wallis and Futuna Islands (ISO 3166 digram)
• WFC – (i) Women's Forage Corps (World War I UK)
• WFD – (i) Weapon(s) of Focused Destruction
• WFF – (i) Wallops Flight Facility
• WFI - Water for Injection
• WFP – (i) World Food Program
• WFT – (i) Washington Football Team (former NFL franchise name)
• WFZ – (i) Weapons Free Zone

WG

• WG – (i) Working Group – Wade–Giles
• WGS 84 – World Geodetic System 1984
• WGSRPD
  • World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions
  • an international biogeography based standardized placename system for flora + floristics locations.

WH

• WH – (i) Wehrmacht Heer (German World War II army vehicle licence plate code)
• WHAM – (a) Wisconsin Hydrogen-Alpha Mapping (telescope)
• WHI – (i) Women's Health Initiative
• WHIP – (a) Walks plus hits per inning pitched
• WHO – (a) World Health Organization
• WHS – (i) (U.S.) Washington Headquarters Services

WI

• WI
  • (s) Western Sahara (FIPS 10-4 country code)
  • Wisconsin (postal symbol)
  • (i) Women's Institute
• WIA
  • (i) Wounded In Action
  • (a) Wireless Institute of Australia (Amateur Radio)
• WIIFM - (i) What's in it for me?
• WIE- (a) Windows Internet Explorer
• WIMP
  • (a) Weakly Interacting Massive Particle
  • Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers
• WIN-T – (i) Warfighter Information Network-Tactical
• WIPO – (a/i) World Intellectual Property Organization
• WIPP – (a) [Nuclear] Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
• WIYN – (i) Wisconsin Indiana Yale NOAO telescope consortium

WJ

• WJKK WJKF – Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ke Fateh, a Sikh greeting

WK

• WK – (s) Wake Island (ISO 3166 digram, obsolete 1986)
• WKYP – (a) Will Keep You Posted
• WKX – (a) World Kickboxing Xtrm

WL

• WL – (i) Wehrmacht Luftwaffe (German World War II air force vehicle licence plate code)
• WLB – (i) Women's Land Brigade (World War II Canada)
• WLF – (s) Wallis and Futuna Islands (ISO 3166 trigram)
• wln – (s) Walloon language (ISO 639-2 code)
• WLOG – (i) Without Loss Of Generality (see WOLOG)

WM

• WM – (i) Wehrmacht Marine (German World War II navy vehicle licence plate code)
• WMANUS – (a) West Midlands Area National Union of Students
• WMD
  • (i) Weapon[s] of Mass Destruction
  • World Movement for Democracy †
• WMI – (i) Wildlife Management Institute
• WMO – (i) World Meteorological Organization

WN

• WNA – (i) World Nuclear Association
• WNBA – (i) Women's National Basketball Association
• WNF – (i) "Will Not Fix"
• WNL - (i) Medical initialism for "Within Normal Limits"
• WNIT – (i) Women's National Invitation Tournament
• WNSD – (i) What's New, Scooby-Doo?
• WNW – (s) West North-West

WO

• wo – (s) Wolof language (ISO 639-1 code)
• WO – (i) Warrant Officer
• W/O – (p) Without: Software w/o Documentation
• w/o
  • Weight per cent
  • without
• WOF - Width of Fabric
• WOFT – (a) Waste Of F***ing Time
• WOFTAM – (a) Waste Of F***ing Time And Money
• WOI – (a/i) Wheels Of Italy
• wol – (s) Wolof language (ISO 639-2 code)
• WOLOG (or WLOG) – (a/i) WithOut Loss Of Generality
• WOM – (a) Write Only Memory
• WOS – (i) Wilson Ornithological Society
• WOSM
  • (i) World Organization of the Scout Movement
  • Worldwide Oil Spill Model
• WOT – (i) Waste Of Time
• WoW or WOW – (a) World of Warcraft

WP

• WP
  • (i) White Phosphorus (ammunition)
  • (i) Workers' Party (Singapore)
• WPB – (i) War Production Board during World War II
• WPE – (i) World Pork Expo
• WPK – (p) Wider Peacekeeping
• WPN – (i) Wizards Play Network (sanctioning body for several games, most notably Magic: The Gathering)
• WPT
  • (i) World Poker Tour
  • World Premiere Toons
• WPP - (i) Witness Protection Program

WQ

• WQS – World Qualifying series (surf)

WR

• WR – (i) Wide receiver (gridiron football)
• WRAC – (a) Women's Royal Army Corps (World War II UK)
• WRAIR – (a) Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
• WRBWWRM – (i) "We Read Best What We Read Most"
• WRC – (i) World Rally Championship
• WRC - World Religions Conference
• WRNS – (i) Women's Royal Naval Service (World War II UK) (pronounced "wrens")
• WRVS – (i) Women's Royal Voluntary Service, now only known by the acronym (UK)
• WRS – (i) Worldwide Reference System
• wrt or w/r/t – (i) with respect to or with regard to, depending on context
• WRT
  • (i) Writer Response Theory
  • (i) WRT - "With respect to", especially in fields such as Mathematics.
  • (i) World Rally Team
  • (i) Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC (Urban Planning and Design)
  • (i) Wireless Ronin Technologies (digital signage)
  • (i) NHS Workforce Review Team
  • The Linksys routers whose model name start with 'WRT'
  • (i) Wholesale, Trade, Retail sector, category in employment and economics statistics
  • (i) Wireless Receiver/Transmitter ( computer networks/IT )
  • Third party firmware for the Linksys WRT routers and compatible models from other vendors.
  • (i) Web Runtime (WRT) is a portable application framework developed by Nokia that allows the creation of widgets on the S60 Platform.

WS

• WS
  • (s) Samoa (ISO 3166 and FIPS 10-4 country code digram; from the country's former name of Western Samoa)
  • (i) Writer to the Signet (a Scottish solicitor)
• WSC – (i) Weapon System Catalogue
• WSDL – (i) Web Services Description Language
• WSJ – (i) (The) Wall Street Journal
• WSL
  • (i) White Star Line (shipping company)
  • Women's Super League, currently used to describe England's top women's association football league and formerly to describe that country's top women's rugby union competition
  • Workers' Socialist League (UK political party)
• WSM
  • (s) Samoa (ISO 3166 trigram; from Western Samoa)
  • (i) Winchester Short Magnum (family of rifle cartridges)
• WSMR – (a/i) White Sands Missile Range ("whiz-murr")
• WSROC – (a) Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils
• WSSM – (i) Winchester Super Short Magnum (family of rifle cartridges)
• WST
  • (i) Water Soluble Tetrazolium (assay)
  • (s) Samoan tālā (ISO 4217 currency code)
• WSTC – (i) Women Signallers Territorial Corps (World War II UK)
• WSUS – Windows Server Update Services
• WSW – (s) West South-West

WT

• WTA – (i) Women's Tennis Association (cf. WTA Tour, operated by this body)
• WTB
  • (i) Wales Tourism Board
  • Warenterminbörse Hannover
• WTB – (i) Want to Buy (a commonly used phrase in various online games and buy/sell messageboards)
• WTC – (i) World Trade Center
• WTF – (i) What the f**k?; also What a Terrible Failure (android)
• WTFH – (i) What The F**king Hell
• WTH – (i) What the Hell
• WTNWD – (i) Wait To Next Working Day (a commonly used phrase to maintain work life balance)
• WTO – (i) World Trade Organization
• WTS – (i) Want to Sell (a commonly used phrase in various online games and buy/sell messageboards)

WU

• WU – (i) Wabash University – Washington University in St. Louis – Western Union – Windows Update – Work unit – WU Wien (German Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration)
• WUU2 – What you up to – Internet slang popular with teenagers.
• WUBU2 – What you been up to

WV

• WV – (s) West Virginia (postal symbol)
• WVA – (i) World Veterinary Association
• WVIAC – (i) West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• WVR – (i) Women's Volunteer Reserve (World War II UK)
• WVSC – (i) Women's Volunteer Service Corps (World War II Canada)
• WVU – (i) West Virginia University
• WVUIT – (i) West Virginia University Institute of Technology (note, however, that the initialism is almost never used; the popular name of the school is "WVU Tech")

WW

• WW – see entry
• WWE – (i) World Wrestling Entertainment
• WWF
  • (i) World Wide Fund for Nature, from its original name of World Wildlife Fund, which remains the legal name in the U.S. and Canada
  • World Wrestling Federation
• WWI – (i) World War I
• WWII – (i) World War II
• WWIII – (i) World War III
• WWJD – (i) "What would Jesus do?"
• WWS – (i) Wheaton Warrenville South High School
• WWV – (i) Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (catalog of the works of Richard Wagner, and callsign of NIST's shortwave radio station in Fort Collins, Colorado)
• WWW – (i) World Wide Web
• WWWF – (i) World Wide Wrestling Federation

WX

• WXO – (i) Weather [Executive] Officer

WY

• WY – (s) Wyoming (postal symbol)
• WYSIWYG – (a) What You See Is What You Get (pronounced "wizzy-wig". See entry for derived acronyms)
• WYSIWYP – (a) What You See Is What You Print / What You See Is What You Pay ("wizzy-whip")
• WYRFTTM – When You Are Free Talk To Me

WZ

• WZ – (s) Eswatini (FIPS 10-4 country code)