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wacky (not whacky)

wagon

Wahhabi (Muslim sect), not Wahabi

Wales cap North Wales, South Wales, Mid Wales, West Wales. For new counties under the local government reorganisation of 1996, see unitary authorities

walked free from court avoid this lazy cliché

Walkman is a trade name, so must cap; in general sense, use personal stereo

walkout

Wallace and Gromit (not Grommit)

Wall's (ice-cream etc)

Wal-Mart

Walton, Izaak, author of The Compleat Angler

Wap (as in mobile telephones), short for wireless application protocol (not WAP)

war crimes tribunal cap only when using the full title, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. It sits at The Hague and has a President and a Chief Prosecutor. Be specific in dealing with war crimes: they relate only to the treatment of prisoners in the custody of a military force

war game(s) (two words)

warfarin is not a trade name, so l/c

War in Iraq Guidance includes: Arabic names al-X (l/c al, with hyphen); Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim; "Chemical Ali" Ali Hassan al-Majid; Fedayin ("men of sacrifice, martyrs"), guerrilla fighters; flak jacket; gas mask; the Gulf (not Persian Gulf); Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of the militia known as al-Mahdi Army, on second mention, Hojatoleslam al-Sadr; ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross (not for); Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf; Iraqi Governing Council (governing council, l/c, after first mention); Kurdish region or Kurdish-controlled region, not Kurdistan; the New Iraqi Army; oilfield, Oil-for-Food programme, oil well; Republican Guard divisions: Medina, Hammurabi and Nida (armoured divisions), Nebuchadnezzar and Baghdad (infantry divisions) and Adnan (mechanised division); Sunni Triangle.
Some Iraqi place names: Abu al-Khasib, al-Amarah, Arbil, Diwaniyah, Fallujah, al-Faw, al-Hillah, al-Hindiyah, Iskandariyah, Karbala, Kirkuk, al-Kufah, al-Kut, Mosul, Najaf, al-Nasiriyah, al-Numaniyah, Ramadi, Rumaila, al-Shatrah, Sulaimaniyah, Tikrit, Umm Qasr, Zakho. See War on Terror

warn is a transitive verb that requires a direct personal object; in other words, a person has to warn somebody about something. Do not say "The Chancellor warned that taxes would rise"; say "The Chancellor gave warning that/issued a warning that ... ", or alternatively, "The Chancellor warned MPs that ...". Try always to find an object with the verb; eg, X warned the City that ... , Y warned voters that ... , rather than the somewhat cumbersome "gave warning" formula. As an alternative that can be transitive or intransitive, use caution: "He cautioned that warn could not be used here." We can afford some flexibility in headlines where, eg, 'Teachers warn of school closures' would be acceptable.

War on Terror if the caps on War on Terror look obtrusive or overused, adopt a l/c alternative such as war against terrorism. Frequently used names and terms arising from the terrorist attacks against the US on September 11, 2001, include:
Osama bin Laden; al-Qaeda (his terrorist group); al-Jazeera (TV station in Qatar); burka (prefer to burqa); Pashtuns (biggest ethnic group in Afghanistan — they speak Pashto); Loya Jirga (Afghan national council that meets irregularly); special forces (l/c) of the US or UK in generic sense; twin towers (of the former World Trade Centre; note the northern tower and the southern tower, all l/c); Ground Zero; King Zahir Shah (returned Afghan King; King Zahir at subsequent mentions); Mullah Muhammad Omar (supreme leader of the Taleban; Mullah Omar at subsequent mentions). Note also Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay (no accent), Cuba (replaced by Camp Delta in April 2002)

warrant officers in the British Army, regimental sergeant-major and company sergeant-major are warrant officer ranks (between the NCOs and commissioned officers)

wars cap the First World War, Second World War, Cold War, Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Six Day War (no hyphen), the Gulf War etc; but prefer the Falklands conflict because war was never formally declared; if the phrase has to be used, write Falklands war (l/c)

warships take care with the following distinction: to serve in a warship, but on a merchant ship; a naval officer is appointed to serve in HMS Sheffield, and not posted to serve. See Armed Forces special section

wartime

Washington not usually necessary to add DC (as in Washington DC), but occasionally useful to distinguish it from Washington State (caps). That and New York State are the only two states we need to cap, to avoid confusion. See New York

washout (one word)

waste usually better to write waste than wastage, which means the process of loss, or its amount or rate

wastepaper bin / basket

watchdog

watercolour, watercolourist; but Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours

water lily (two words), but artistic convention uses one word in Monet's Waterlilies paintings

Waterstone's (with apostrophe), the booksellers

wear say menswear, women's wear, children's wear, sportswear. See clothing

weather stories (about floods, hurricanes, snow, record sunshine etc in the UK) must always take a cross-reference to the back page weather forecast. Style is, eg, Forecast, page 24 (bold, set right), or Weather Eye, page 24

week, weekend the week ends on Saturday night. Common sense will dictate whether to say last week, this week, next week etc. Beware of references to at the weekend in Monday papers: always make clear whether you mean the weekend just past or next Saturday and Sunday. The phrase "this weekend" should refer only to the coming weekend

weigh anchor means to raise a vessel's anchor, not to drop it. See Armed Forces special section (Royal Navy)

weights and measures abbreviations context will determine when to shorten kilometres, grams, feet, inches, stone, pounds, ounces etc. “He was 6ft 7in” (not ins, and no space between number and abbreviation); but “she stood two feet from the kerb”. Similarly, “she weighed 8st 12lb” (not lbs); but “he was several pounds overweight”. See scientific measures, metric

Welch, Welsh take care with The Royal Welch Fusiliers, but Welsh Guards (part of The Guards Division). See Armed Forces special section

Welsh Assembly members are abbreviated AMs; MLAs for Northern Ireland Assembly; MSPs for Scottish Parliament. Cap A for Assembly at second mention in Wales and Northern Ireland; cap P for Parliament in Scotland

welfare state (l/c); but note the Welfare to Work programme (twice cap W, no hyphens). See State

wellbeing

wellington boots (l/c)

wellwisher (do not hyphenate)

Welsh Assembly, caps, and the Assembly (cap) thereafter. The leader of the Assembly is called the First Minister (no longer the First Secretary).

Welsh Valleys for the (former) mining valleys of South Wales

Welsh, Irvine (the novelist and playwright)

west, western etc; for when to cap in geographical context, see compass points

West, the (in global political sense); similarly, Western leaders, Western Europe etc

Westbrook, Danniella

western (l/c for cowboy films)

West Lothian question (l/c "q"). See Politics special section

whence means "from where". Never write "from whence"

whereabouts is singular, eg, “his whereabouts is not known”. Prefer “nobody knows where he is”

whether rarely needs or not to follow it

which. See that

Which? the consumer organisation/group/watchdog; note Which? (itals) for its publication

while (not whilst)

whingeing (with middle “e”)

whips cap Chief Whip, Whips' Office, but l/c the unspecific, eg, a government whip. See Politics special section

whisky (from Scotland), Scotch as alternative; but whiskey (from Ireland and America). See Scotch

whistle-blower

whistle-stop (tour etc)

Whitbread Round the World Race (note caps, no hyphens)

White Cliffs of Dover (caps)

white-collar workers

White Paper (caps), as with Green Paper; these should not be capped, however, with anything other than a White Paper/Green Paper issued by the Government. A “white paper” from the Opposition should be styled thus — quotes and l/c first mention, thereafter just l/c. See Green Paper, Politics special section

whiz-kid only one “z”, but use this colloquialism sparingly

WHO spell out at first mention, World Health Organisation, then the WHO

who, whom which of these to use is determined solely by its function in the relative clause. Remember that whom has to be the object of the verb in the relative clause. Thus, “she is the woman whom the police wish to interview” (ie, the police wish to interview HER, not SHE); the other most common use of whom is after a preposition such as by, with or from, eg, “the person from whom he bought a ticket”.
Beware of traps, however: “Who do you think did it?” is correct (not whom, because who is the subject of “did it”, not the object of “do you think”); and “Give it to whoever wants it” is correct (not whomever) because whoever is the subject of the verb wants.
Beware too of constructions such as “he squirted ammonia at a van driver who [correct] he believed had cut him up” (where “he believed” is simply an interjection; “who” is not the object of “he believed” but the subject of the subordinate clause, “who ... had cut him up”)

whodunnit (not whodunit)

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (note caps, l/c and question mark)

why usually superfluous after reason, eg, “the reason he did it was ...”, not “the reason why he did it was ...”

Wicks Committee on Standards in Public Life (Sir Nigel Wicks new chairman, March 2001). See Committee

Widdecombe, Ann (not Anne)

Widdicombe Fair (not Widdecombe); note Uncle Tom Cobbleigh

wide no hyphen in compounds such as countrywide, nationwide, worldwide

wideawake, always one word

wideranging

widow (woman), widower (man); never say “widow of the late John Jones”; she is the “widow of John Jones”

wi-fi (l/c, as hi-fi)

wildfowl, wildlife

Wild West

Wimbledon caps for the Centre Court, No 1 Court, No 14 Court etc. See Sports special section

Wimpy bars/hamburgers but Wimpey, the builders

Winchester College its pupils are Wykehamists

wind with strong winds, give a description as well as force number (in numerals), eg, storm force 10 (add "on the Beaufort scale" where appropriate. The scale grades wind speeds from 0 to 12; Americans use the scale to 17).
So write, eg, force 4 (l/c, numeral), up to force 7; thereafter, gale force 8, severe gale force 9, storm force 10, violent storm force 11 and hurricane force 12. But the vernacular "force 11 winds" is acceptable

wind farm (two words)

wines l/c in most cases, for both the type and the grape, except where it would look out of place; so say, eg, bordeaux, burgundy, champagne, claret, moselle, alsace, rioja, but a Côtes du Rhône, a Hunter Valley chardonnay. Cap when referring specifically to the wine-growing region, eg, “I prefer a good burgundy to an alsace, but I think the best wines still come from Bordeaux”; “he preferred to buy his champagne only in Champagne”

wine bar (two words)

Winnie-the-Pooh has hyphens

Winslet, Kate

Winter of Discontent (of 1978-79), initial caps

Wirral (not Wirrall); permissible to refer to The Wirral (cap “T”), but the Wirral peninsula

wish list (no hyphen)

wistaria (not wisteria)

witch-hunt, but witchcraft and witchdoctor

withhold (not withold)

witnesses in British courts witnesses go into the witness box and give evidence; they do not take the stand and testify. In the general sense, prefer witness to eyewitness wherever possible. See eyewitness

woebegone, woeful

Wolf Cubs are now Cub Scouts. See Boy Scouts

women doctors, women teachers etc adopt the plural through common usage. See feminine designations, lady

Woodgate, Jonathan (not Jonathon), footballer

Woolf reforms several important changes have been made in civil litigation rules and terminology since April 1999. Three of the commonest are: plaintiffs are now claimants; a writ is now a claim form; and notices of application will be served in the place of summonses. For fuller list, see Courts Special Section

Woolsack (in Parliament), initial cap

Woolworths no apostrophe either in formal name for business contexts or colloquial use for the store and products

word-processor, word-processing (hyphens)

workaholic, as shopaholic, but note chocoholic

workers farmworkers, metalworkers and roadworkers each one word, but two for car workers, oil workers, office workers etc

workforce, workshop, work-to-rule

working families tax credit (l/c, and families not family)

workout (one word); also workrate

world avoid, wherever possible, phrases such as the fashion world, the theatre world, the cricket world etc

World Heritage Site (caps)

World Trade Organisation (WTO), the successor body to Gatt. See Gatt, Uruguay Round

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) (not Worldwide; nor World Wildlife Fund, its old name); the general adjective is worldwide. See WWF

world wide web (as with internet), l/c; and the web for short, also website. See internet

Worrall Thompson, Antony (TV cook)

worthwhile (one word) often used where simply worth would be better, eg, “the programme was worth recording”

WPC See police ranks

wrack means seaweed or wreckage and must not be used as a synonym of torture; thus, racked by doubts etc. See racked

wreaked (not wrought) havoc, heavy damage, vengeance etc

Wrens use only in historical context. Women sailors are now fully integrated into the Royal Navy and the WRNS no longer exists as a separate entity. If necessary to specify, refer to a woman captain etc

write-off (noun), write-up (noun), but a writedown (in business context)

writes with written-in bylines, prefer the construction Ann Bloggs writes to writes Ann Bloggs. Use the singular with, eg, (Our Foreign Staff writes). Normal style is to use the brackets on news and sports pages, the italics on features

wrongdoer, wrongdoing, but wrong-footed, wrong-headed

WWF is now the name of what was the World Wide Fund for Nature and for legal reasons must not be used for the World Wrestling Federation (say the federation if a shorter form for the wrestling group is needed). See World Wide Fund for Nature

Wyndham's Theatre in London takes the apostrophe