Word.ws English Dictionary

wai

/waɪ/

wai noun: a Thai greeting wherein the palms are brought together in front of the face or chest, sometimes accompanied with a bow.

wai: a Thai greeting wherein the palms are brought together in front of the face or chest, sometimes...
Image: Government of Thailand, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

wai (plural wais)

  1. A Thai greeting wherein the palms are brought together in front of the face or chest, sometimes accompanied with a bow.

Adverb

wai (not comparable)

  1. (Internet) why (a purposeful misspelling)

Proper noun capitalized: WAI

WAI

  1. (Internet, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Web Accessibility Initiative, an effort to improve the accessibility of the World Wide Web for people with disabilities.

Phrase capitalized: WAI

WAI

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of works as intended: current situation is what was intended and thus not subject to change.
  2. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of working as intended.

wai meaning in Malay, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese

wai in Malay

Thai greeting
sembah

wai in Indonesian

Thai greeting
sembah

wai in Thai

Thai greeting
ไหว้ wâai

wai in Vietnamese

Thai greeting
vái
More languagesFewer languages
wai in Myanmar
ဝေး we:, ဝေ့ we., ဝေ we

Forms of wai

pluralwais

Origin of wai

Borrowed from Thai ไหว้ (wâi, “a gesture of thanks”).

Phonetic respelling of why.

Words formed from wai

Phrases with wai

Words that rhyme with wai

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wai

What does wai mean?
Wai means a Thai greeting wherein the palms are brought together in front of the face or chest, sometimes accompanied with a bow.
What is wai in Malay?
Wai in Malay is sembah. See Wai meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is wai?
Wai can be a noun, an adverb, a proper noun or a phrase.
How do you pronounce wai?
Wai is pronounced /waɪ/.
What is the plural of wai?
The plural of wai is wais.

Words near wai in the dictionary

  1. wahs
  2. wahter
  3. wahtuh
  4. wahtuhs
  5. wahy
  6. wai
  7. Wai Wai
  8. WAI-ARIA
  9. Wai-wai
  10. Waialeale
  11. Waianae

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wai (page history and authors); WAI (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wai.wav.

Cite this entry: “wai.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wai. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.