We all want to be wonderfully well-spoken. When you’re worrying over a game of Words with Friends or Scrabble, win more often by wrapping your head around the letter W. Wish your writing would withstand wanton criticism? Well, try wrangling some W-words. W is the 23rd letter of the English alphabet, but it wiggles into first place for some wacky and whimsical words! You’ll wreak havoc with your vocabulary when you work to widen your repertoire. Why not welcome more words that begin with the letter W into your vocabulary?
We’ve created this list of words for you, organized by the number of letters in each word. Many of these words have more than one meaning. For simplicity, we’ve only listed one definition for each word. Keep in mind, this word list doesn’t contain every single English word that starts with W; however, it’s a useful introduction to this very special letter.
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Here are some words that start with W [2-15 letter words]
15-Letter Words
weatherstripped – Verb | Fitted with a thin strip of metal, felt, or wood to keep out drafts and rain
whatchamacallit – Noun | Something with a name that’s been forgotten
wondermongering – Verb | Telling of miracles or freakish things
wrongheadedness – Noun | The quality of being wrong in judgement or opinion
14-Letter Words
watertightness – Noun | The state of being impermeable to water, due to tight-fitting construction
weightlessness – Noun | An instance of being free from gravity
westernization – Noun | The adoption of western traditions or methods
wheelbarrowing – Verb | Conveying in an open container with a wheel in the front and two handles and legs in the back
13-Letter Words
watercolorist – Noun | A person who paints using a water dispersion of a binding material such as glue, casein, or gum
whistleblower – Noun | An employee who reports an employer to a regulating agency
wicketkeeping – Noun | The role of a cricket player who stands behind the wicket, fielding balls
winterization – Noun | The process of equipping for winter
12-Letter Words
weatherboard – Verb | To cover with clapboards or siding
westernizing – Verb | Making western, especially more like noncommunist Europe and America, in character and habits
wholehearted – Adjective | Completely sincere
wordsmithery – Noun | The craft of working with words
11-Letter Words
warehousing – Verb | Storing in a storeroom or warehouse
wastebasket – Noun | A receptacle for trash
watercourse – Noun | A channel or stream of water
windbreaker – Noun | A light, wind-resistant jacket
10-Letter Words
wallflower – Noun | A shy person
watermelon – Noun | A large, rounded fruit with pink flesh, a green or white rind, and many seeds
windjammer – Noun | A crew member of a sailing ship
workaholic – Noun | A person with a compulsion to work
9-Letter Words
waistband – Noun | Material that forms a band around the top of pants, shorts, or skirts
walkabout – Noun | An Australian Aboriginal tradition of breaking from modern life, usually involving travel in the bush
wantonize – Verb | To indulge in lasciviousness
waribashi – Noun | Disposable bamboo or wood chopsticks
8-Letter Words
walleyed – Adjective | Having large, staring, fish-like eyes
wartweed – Noun | Any of various plants thought to cure warts
wildcard – Noun | A playing card that can assume the value of another card, as determined by the player (also spelled wild card)
windward – Noun | The side from which the wind blows
7-Letter Words
wagging – Verb | Swinging back and forth or up and down in a jerking movement
walkout – Noun | A strike
washtub – Noun | A basin used for cleaning clothes or linens
whemmle – Verb | To overturn (Scottish English)
6-Letter Words
waddle – Noun | A swaying, clumsy way of walking
waffle – Verb | To vacillate
wallop – Verb | To strike
wallow – Verb | To indulge oneself, especially with self-pity
walrus – Noun | A large marine mammal with tusks and flippers
wheeze – Verb | To breathe in a labored way, often making a whistling sound
wicket – Noun | A gate, door, or window, especially one with an opening for communication
5-Letter Words
wacke- Noun | A dark gray sandstone
wacko – Noun | A person who is wacky or mentally unstable
wader – Noun | A shorebird
wahoo – Interjection | An expression of enthusiasm
waken – Verb | To rouse from sleep
walla -Noun | A person connected to a particular function, thing, or place (also spelled wallah)
washy – Adjective | Watery
waver – Verb | To vacillate
waxen – Adjective | Pallid and unusually smooth, resembling wax
whack – Verb | To strike
whiff – Noun | A slight gust or inhalation
whoop – Verb | To shout
wigan – Noun | A cotton fabric used to stiffen parts of a garment
wince – Verb | To flinch from pain
winch – Noun | A crank with a handle that generates motion for a machine
wiper – Noun | Something used for wiping
withe – Verb | To bind with a flexible branch or twig
wonky – Adjective| Unsteady
wrung – Verb | Twisted to extract moisture
4-Letter Words
wadi – Noun | A gully in southwestern Asia or northern Africa that is dry except during the wet season
waft – Verb | To travel lightly on a breeze
waif – Noun | An unusually thin girl or woman
wain – Noun | A wagon or cart for farm use
wair – Noun | A piece of lumber, six feet by one foot in size
wame – Noun | The belly (Scottish English)
wane – Verb | To dwindle or decrease
wark – Noun | Work (Scottish English)
weal – Noun | A state of health and well-being
wean – Verb | To gradually separate a mammal from its mother’s milk
weft – Noun | The horizontal threads in a woven fabric
wend – Verb | To journey or proceed
wham – Noun | The loud sound caused by an explosion or impact
whet – Verb | To sharpen by means of friction
whew – Interjection | An expression of relief or amazement
whey – Noun | A milky serum that occurs as part of the cheese-making process
wile – Noun | Skilled trickery
wisp – Noun | A slender streak or trace
wold – Noun | An open region of rolling hills
woof – Noun | The gruff bark of a dog
3-Letter Words
wab – Noun | Web (Scottish English)
wae – Noun | Sorrow (Scottish English)
wag – Verb | To swing back and forth or up and down in a jerking movement
wap – Verb | To beat or hit
waw – Noun | The 6th letter of the Hebrew alphabet (also spelled vav)
wiz – Noun | Someone who is very skilled in a particular area (also spelled whiz)
wok – Noun | A bowl-shaped pan used for cooking Chinese dishes
wot – Verb | To know
wye – Noun | The 25th letter of the English alphabet
wyn – Noun | The runic equivalent of the letter W used in Old and Middle English (also spelled wynn)
2-Letter Words
we – Pronoun | A group that includes oneself and others
wo – Noun | Sorrow (also spelled woe)
Because W came to the Latin alphabet during the Middle Ages, later than most other letters, fewer roots, prefixes, and suffixes begin with W. As the Encyclopedia Britannica explains, “W was introduced by Norman scribes to represent the English sound w (a semivowel) and to differentiate it from the v sound.” It’s also the only letter with a name—”double u”—that does not correspond to its phonetic transcription—”wa.” The digraph “uu” first appeared in the 8th century in Old High German, but now languages with the letter W include English, Dutch, Welsh, Swedish, Polish, and many more.
Wager on words that start with the letter W—wise weapons for any wayward wordsmith. Why writhe with writer’s block? It’s way easier to wax poetic and whip up a few winsome whoppers. Weigh the words on this list, then wander around giving world-class wisecracks a whirl. No word finder, word game, or puzzle will withstand your willingness to wrest victory from weaklings. From wo to weatherstripped, a wellspring of W-words won’t waste your time or make you weary.
I’m an award-winning playwright with a penchant for wordplay. After earning a perfect score on the Writing SAT, I worked my way through Brown University by moonlighting as a Kaplan Test Prep tutor. I received a BA with honors in Literary Arts (Playwriting)—which gave me the opportunity to study under Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel. In my previous roles as new media producer with Rosetta Stone, director of marketing for global ventures with The Juilliard School, and vice president of digital strategy with Up & Coming Media, I helped develop the voice for international brands. From my home office in Maui, Hawaii, I currently work on freelance and ghostwriting projects.
