w

Other forms of w

plural

ws·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about w

What does w mean?

w means "a heavy grey-white metallic element; the pure form is used mainly in electrical applications; it is found in several ores including wolframite and scheelite". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in w?

w has 3 syllables, though it cannot be divided in writing — the spelling has fewer vowels than the word has beats. In IPA it is /ˈdʌbəlju/.

What is another word for w?

Close synonyms include tungsten, wolfram, atomic number 74, west, due west. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is w a common word?

w is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.