waw
/wɔː/
waw verb: to stir; move; wave. Also the alternative spelling of vav.
Verb
waw (third-person singular simple present waws, present participle wawing, simple past and past participle wawed)
Noun (1)
waw (plural waws)
- A wave.
- […] nigh it drawes
All passengers, that none from it can shift:
For whiles they fly that Gulfes deuouring iawes,
They on this rock are rent, and sunck in helplesse wawes.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- […] nigh it drawes
Noun (2)
waw (plural waws)
- A wall.
- She hath been at London to call a strea a straw, and a waw a wall.1678, John Ray, A Collection of English Proverbs, section 75
- T'ootside waws was whitewesh't.1886, Thomas Farrall, Betty Wilson's Cummerland Teals, section 41
Noun (3)
IPA/wɑːw/
waw (plural waws)
- The twenty-seventh letter of the Arabic alphabet: و.
Noun (4) capitalized: WAW
WAW (uncountable)
Also used as
waw is also the alternative spelling of vav.
waw meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Arabic
waw in Hindi
- Arabic letter
- वाव vāv
waw in Urdu
- Arabic letter
- وَاو vāv
waw in Gujarati
- Arabic letter
- વાવ vāv
waw in Arabic
- Arabic letter
- وَاو wāw
More languagesFewer languages
- waw in Malay
- wau
- waw in Persian
- واو vâw
Forms of waw
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | waws |
| present participle | wawing |
| past participle | wawed |
| past | wawed |
| Noun | |
| plural | waws |
| alternative form | wawe |
| alternative form | wo |
| alternative form | waugh |
Origin of waw
From Middle English wawen, waȝien, from Old English wagian (“to move, shake, swing, totter”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagōn, from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to move”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to drag, carry”). Cognate with German wagen (“to venture, dare, risk”), Dutch wagen (“to venture, dare, also to move, stir”), Swedish våga (“to dare”).
From Middle English wawe, waȝe, waghe, from Old English wǣg (“motion, water, wave, billow, flood, sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *wāg, from Proto-Germanic *wēgaz (“wave, storm”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to drag, carry”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian waag (“wave”), West Frisian weach (“wave”), Dutch waag (“wave”), German Woge, Wooge (“wave”), Danish vove, våg (“wave”), Faroese vágur (“bay”), Icelandic vogur (“bay”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish våg (“wave”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌲𐍃 (wēgs, “wave”), French vague (“wave”) (from Old Norse vágr (“ocean, sea; wave”)). See also wave.
From Middle English wawe, wowe, waugh, wough, from Old English wāh, wāg (“a wall, partition”), from Proto-West Germanic *waig, from Proto-Germanic *waigaz (“wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to bend, twist”). Cognate with Scots wauch, vauch, Saterland Frisian Wooge (“indoor wall, partition”).
Words formed from waw
Words that rhyme with waw
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about waw
- What does waw mean?
- Waw means to stir; move; wave.
- What is waw in Hindi?
- Waw in Hindi is वाव (vāv). See Waw meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is waw?
- Waw can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce waw?
- Waw is pronounced /wɔː/.
- What is the past tense of waw?
- The past tense of waw is wawed.
Words near waw in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: waw (page history and authors); WAW (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-waw.wav.
Cite this entry: “waw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/waw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.