# 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)

## Contents

* Top
* W0–9 WA WB WC WD WE WF WG WH WI WJ WK WL WM WN WO WP WQ WR WS WT WU WV WW WX WY WZ
* 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)
* WIC – (a/i) U.S. (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for) Women, Infants and Children (often pronounced "wick")
* 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)