Spanish Words That Start With W
🇪🇸 Spanish · 30 cards · B1 · by Lucía Herrera
W is not really a Spanish letter. Everything in this deck arrived from English, German, Japanese or somewhere else, and that shows up in the pronunciation: in whisky, wifi and wéstern the w sounds like English /w/, but in wáter or wolframio most speakers say a b (báter, bolframio). Gender is the other trap: la web and la webcam, but el widget, and wifi swings between el and la depending on where you are. I've put the everyday words first (web, wifi, whisky, wok, wasap) and left the sports, chemistry and animal terms for the end. Read the notes — several of these have two accepted spellings, and the one you see in print is not always the one the RAE recommends.
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All 30 cards
| # | Spanish | English | Example | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | web Feminine: la web. Usually part of 'página web' or 'sitio web'. | web, website | Busca la receta en la web. Look for the recipe online. | |
| 2 | wifi The DLE accepts both genders. 'El wifi' dominates in Latin America; in Spain 'la wifi' is very common too. | wifi | ¿Me pasas la contraseña del wifi? Can you give me the wifi password? | |
| 3 | whisky Masculine. The RAE also admits the adapted spelling 'güisqui', but almost nobody writes it. | whisky | Un whisky con hielo, por favor. A whisky with ice, please. | |
| 4 | wok Masculine: el wok. From Cantonese, via English. | wok | Saltea las verduras en el wok dos minutos. Stir-fry the vegetables in the wok for two minutes. | |
| 5 | wasap RAE-approved adaptation; informal. Plural 'wasaps'; variant 'guasap'. In Mexico you'll also hear 'un whats'. | WhatsApp message | Te mandé un wasap hace rato. I sent you a WhatsApp a while ago. | |
| 6 | wasapear Regular -ar verb, colloquial. Also spelled 'guasapear'. | to message on WhatsApp | Llevamos toda la tarde wasapeando. We've been WhatsApping all afternoon. | |
| 7 | wáter Spain, colloquial; pronounced 'báter'. The RAE prefers the spelling 'váter'. In Latin America: 'baño', 'inodoro'. | toilet, loo | El wáter está atascado otra vez. The toilet is clogged again. | |
| 8 | wéstern Masculine; plural 'wésterns'. In Spain also 'película del oeste'. | western (film) | A mi abuelo le encantan los wésterns. My grandfather loves westerns. | |
| 9 | wafle Masculine. Mexico and much of Latin America, also written 'waffle'. Spain says 'gofre'. | waffle | Desayunamos wafles con miel. We had waffles with honey for breakfast. | |
| 10 | wasabi Masculine: el wasabi. From Japanese. | wasabi | No le pongas tanto wasabi, que pica. Don't put so much wasabi on it, it's hot. | |
| 11 | waterpolo Masculine. Spain: 'jugar al waterpolo'; in much of Latin America 'jugar waterpolo', without 'al'. | water polo | Mi hermana juega al waterpolo desde niña. My sister has played water polo since she was little. | |
| 12 | windsurf Masculine, normally with the verb 'hacer': hacer windsurf. | windsurfing | En verano hacemos windsurf en la playa. In summer we go windsurfing at the beach. | |
| 13 | walkie-talkie Masculine; plural 'walkie-talkies'. In Spain often shortened to 'walkie'. | walkie-talkie | Los guardias se comunican por walkie-talkie. The guards talk to each other over walkie-talkie. | |
| 14 | webcam Usually feminine: la webcam. The fully Spanish option is 'cámara web'. | webcam | Se me apagó la webcam en plena reunión. My webcam went off in the middle of the meeting. | |
| 15 | webinario Masculine. 'Webinar' is just as common in speech; 'seminario web' is the neutral option. | webinar | Me inscribí en un webinario de marketing. I signed up for a marketing webinar. | |
| 16 | webserie Feminine: la webserie. Written as one word, following 'una serie'. | web series | Están grabando una webserie en mi barrio. They're filming a web series in my neighbourhood. | |
| 17 | wiki The DLE records it as masculine (el wiki), but 'la wiki' is very common by analogy with 'la página'. | wiki | Apunta las instrucciones en la wiki del equipo. Write the instructions down on the team wiki. | |
| 18 | widget Masculine; pronounced roughly 'wídyet'. Plural 'widgets'. In Spain you'd say 'del tiempo' instead of 'del clima'. | widget | Puse un widget del clima en la pantalla. I put a weather widget on my screen. | |
| 19 | walkman Masculine; dated, pure nostalgia now. | Walkman, portable cassette player | De joven escuchaba cintas en un walkman. When I was young I listened to tapes on a Walkman. | |
| 20 | wey Mexico, very informal. 'Güey' is the standard spelling; 'wey' is how people text it. Friendly among friends, insulting with the wrong tone. | dude, guy; idiot | ¿Qué onda, wey? ¿Ya llegaste? What's up, dude? Are you here yet? | |
| 21 | whiskería Feminine. Spain and the Southern Cone; the RAE spells it 'güisquería'. It sounds like a whisky bar but is understood as a hostess bar or brothel — use with care. | hostess bar (nominally a whisky bar) | Abrieron una whiskería en la carretera. They opened a hostess bar out on the main road. | |
| 22 | wélter Boxing: 'peso wélter'. Invariable as an adjective; 'el wélter' also works for the boxer. | welterweight | Pelea en el peso wélter desde el año pasado. He's been fighting as a welterweight since last year. | |
| 23 | waterpolista Common gender: el/la waterpolista. | water polo player | Mi prima es waterpolista de la selección nacional. My cousin is a water polo player on the national team. | |
| 24 | windsurfista Common gender: el/la windsurfista. | windsurfer (person) | Un windsurfista cruzó la bahía en media hora. A windsurfer crossed the bay in half an hour. | |
| 25 | wagneriano Adjective: wagneriana, wagnerianos, wagnerianas. Pronounced with b/v: 'bagneriano'. Also a noun for a Wagner fan. | Wagnerian | El final de la película era casi wagneriano. The end of the film was almost Wagnerian. | |
| 26 | wolframio Masculine; symbol W; pronounced 'bolframio'. 'Tungsteno' is more common in everyday speech, especially in Latin America. | tungsten | Las bombillas antiguas llevan filamento de wolframio. Old light bulbs have a tungsten filament. | |
| 27 | wómbat Masculine; plural 'wómbats'. | wombat | En el zoo vimos un wómbat dormido. At the zoo we saw a sleeping wombat. | |
| 28 | walabí Masculine; plural 'walabíes' or 'walabís'. The dictionary also records 'ualabí', but 'walabí' is what you normally see. | wallaby | El walabí parece un canguro pequeño. A wallaby looks like a small kangaroo. | |
| 29 | wolof Invariable: el wolof (the language), los wolof (the people). Also used as an adjective. | Wolof (language and people of Senegal) | En Senegal mucha gente habla wolof. In Senegal a lot of people speak Wolof. | |
| 30 | won Masculine; plural 'wones'. | won (Korean currency) | Cambié mis euros por wones en Seúl. I changed my euros into won in Seoul. |
Native Spanish speaker from Valencia, now in Mexico City. I tutor Spanish online and keep a notebook of the words my students trip over. Every deck here comes from that notebook.
Questions about this deck
- Why are there so few Spanish words that start with W?
- Because W was not part of the Latin alphabet that Spanish inherited. Every W entry in the dictionary is a borrowing — from English (web, whisky, walkman), German (wagneriano, wolframio), Japanese (wasabi), Korean (won) or African languages (wolof). The RAE lists only a few dozen, and many have an alternative spelling with V, B or GU: váter, vatio, güisqui, güey.
- How do you pronounce W in Spanish?
- Two ways. In recent borrowings it sounds like English /w/: web, wifi, whisky, wok, wasabi, windsurf. In older or Germanic-origin words it is pronounced like Spanish b/v: wáter sounds like 'báter', wolframio like 'bolframio', wagneriano like 'bagneriano'. Note that in 'whisky' the h is silent and the w does the work: 'güiski'.
- Is 'wasap' really a Spanish word?
- Yes. The RAE accepted the noun 'wasap' (a WhatsApp message) and the verb 'wasapear', plus the variants 'guasap' and 'guasapear'. All four are informal: fine in a text or with friends, out of place in a formal email. In Mexico you'll also hear 'un whats' or simply 'un mensaje'.
- Is it 'la web' or 'el web'?
- 'La web' — feminine, because it stands in for 'la página web' or 'la red'. Related words differ: 'la webcam' and 'la webserie' are feminine, 'el webinario' and 'el widget' are masculine. 'Wifi' takes either gender: 'el wifi' across Latin America, 'la wifi' very frequently in Spain.
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