wagon
not waggon

Wags
wives and girlfriends (generally of footballers: the term was popularised during the 2006 World Cup); the singular is Wag. Now in danger of overuse, and arguably sexist - though for a full lexicography, and variations (eg Habs, Mags and Sads), see the excellent Wikipedia entry

Wahhabism
branch of Islam practised by followers of the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab (1703-92)

wah-wah pedal

waive, waiver
the relinquishing of a claim or right; waver to hesitate

wake
"in the wake of" is overused; nothing wrong with "as a result of" or simply "after"

Wales
avoid the word "principality"; not a unit of measurement ("50 times the size of Wales)

Wales Office
not Welsh Office

walking stick

Walkman
TM; plural Walkmans not Walkmen

Wallpaper*
magazine (note asterisk)

Wall's
ice-cream, sausages

Wal-Mart
owner of Asda

Wap
(wireless application protocol) phones

war crime, war dance, war game

warhead, warhorse, warlord, warpath, warship, wartime

"war on terror"
always in quotes

wars
first world war, second world war (do not say "before the war" or "after the war" when you mean the second world war)

hundred years war (it actually lasted 116 years, from 1337 to 1453)
war of Jenkins' Ear (1739-48)
civil war (England), American civil war, Spanish civil war
Crimean/Boer/Korean/Vietnam war
six-day war
Gulf war (1991), Iraq war (2003)

washing-up liquid

washout

Was (Not Was)
US rock band

Wasp
white Anglo-Saxon Protestant

The Waste Land
poem by TS Eliot (not The Wasteland)

watchdog, watchmaker, watchword

watercolour, watercourse, watermark, waterproof, waterskiing, waterworks
one word

Waterford Wedgwood
glass and china (not Wedgewood)

water polo

Waterstone's
bookshop

Watford Gap
a service area on the M1 in Northamptonshire, named after a nearby village 80 miles north of London; nothing to do with the Hertfordshire town of Watford, with which it is sometimes confused by lazy writers who think such phrases as "anyone north of the Watford Gap" a witty way to depict the unwashed northern hordes
Photographs

wayzgoose
traditional term for a printer's works outing

web, webpage, website, world wide web

web cross-references
Style for GU web addresses is guardian.co.uk/politics, guardian.co.uk/books etc (all lc) apart from the following websites: MediaGuardian.co.uk, EducationGuardian.co.uk, SocietyGuardian.co.uk

web 2.0

Weee directive
(note three Es) EU scheme to encourage recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment

weight
in kilograms with imperial conversion, eg 65kg (10st 2lb)

Weight Watchers
TM

welch
to fail to honour an obligation, NOT welsh

Welch Regiment, Royal Welch Fusiliers

welfare state

wellbeing

well-known
as with famous, if someone or something is well-known, it should not be necessary to say so

wellnigh

Welsh, Irvine
Scottish author

Welsh assembly
official name is the National Assembly for Wales; members are AMs

welsh dresser

welsh rarebit

Welsh spellings
(eg F for the V sound in English, DD for the TH sound): prefer Welsh spelling such as Caernarfon and Conwy to old-fashioned anglicised version (Caernarvon, Conway) - although there are exceptions, such as Cardiff not Caerdydd

Wen Jiabao
succeeded Zhu Rongji as Chinese premier (prime minister) in 2003; Wen at second mention (except in leading articles, where he is Mr Wen)

west, western, the west, western Europe

western
(cowboy film)

West Bank

West Bank barrier
should always be called a barrier when referred to in its totality, as it is in places a steel and barbed-wire fence and in others an 8 metre-high concrete wall; if referring to a particular section of it then calling it a fence or a wall may be appropriate.
It can also be described as a "separation barrier/fence/wall" or "security barrier/fence/wall", according to the nature of the article

west coast mainline

West Country

West Lothian question

Westminster Abbey

West Nile virus

Weyerhaeuser
US pulp and paper company

what is
a phrase that, while occasionally helpful to add emphasis, has become overused to the point of tedium; examples from the paper include:
"Beckham repaid the committed public support with what was a man-of-the-match performance ... "
"Principal among Schofield's 19 recommendations in what is a wide-ranging report ... "
What is clear is that these would be improved by what would be the simple step of removing the offending phrase

wheelchair
Say (if relevant) that someone uses a wheelchair, not that they are "in a wheelchair" or "wheelchair-bound" — stigmatising and offensive, as well as inaccurate

whence
means "where from", so don't write "from whence"

whereabouts
singular: her whereabouts is not known

which or that?
see that or which?

Which?
the magazine, and the organisation that publishes it

while
not whilst

whisky
plural whiskies; but Irish and US whiskey

whistleblower

white
lc in racial context

white paper

white van man

Whitsuntide
not Whitsun

whiz, whiz-kid

who or whom?
From a Guardian report: "The US kept up the pressure by naming nine Yugoslav military leaders operating in Kosovo whom it said were committing war crimes."
The "whom" should have been "who". That one was caught by the sub, but it is a common mistake.
If in doubt, ask yourself how the clause beginning who/whom would read in the form of a sentence giving he, him, she, her, they or them instead: if the who/whom person turns into he/she/they, then "who" is right; if it becomes him/her/them, then it should be "whom".
In the story above, "they" were allegedly committing the crimes, so it should be "who".
In this example: "Brown was criticised for attacking Cameron, whom he despised" - "whom" is correct because he despised "him". But in "Brown attacked Cameron, who he thought was wrong" - "who" is correct, because it is "he" not "him" who is considered wrong.

Use of "whom" has all but disappeared from spoken English, and seems to be going the same way in most forms of written English too. If you are not sure, it is much better to use "who" when "whom" would traditionally have been required than to use "whom" incorrectly for "who", which will make you look not just wrong but wrong and pompous

whodunit

wicketkeeper

Widdecombe, Ann
Tory cabinet minister who, briefly, became a Guardian agony aunt

wide awake

Wiesel, Elie
Holocaust survivor and author; he was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1986

Wi-Fi
TM; the generic term is wireless computer network

Wii
Nintendo games machine

Willans, Geoffrey
(not Williams or Willians, as have appeared in the paper) author of the Molesworth books, illustrated by Ronald Searle, as any fule kno

Wimpey
houses

Wimpy
burgers

windbag, windfall, windpipe, windscreen

Windermere
not Lake Windermere; note that Windermere is also the name of the town

wines
lc, whether taking their name from a region (eg beaujolais, bordeaux, burgundy, chablis, champagne) or a grape variety (eg cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot, muscadet)
The regions themselves of course are capped up: so one might drink a burgundy from Burgundy, or a muscadet from the Loire valley; as are wines of individual chateaux, eg I enjoyed a glass of Cos d'Estournel 1970

wing commander
in leading articles, abbreviate on second mention to Wing Co; Wing Commander Barry Johnson, subsequently Wing Co Johnson; otherwise just Johnson

Winnie-the-Pooh
in the original AA Milne books, although the "bear of little brain" has lost the hyphens in his Disney incarnation

winter

winter of discontent

wipeout
noun

wipe out
verb

wishlist

witchcraft
but witch-doctor, witch-hunt

withhold

witness
not eyewitness, except for the Eyewitness picture spread in the Guardian

wits' end

wiz
as in "she's a total wiz at maths", not whiz or whizz

woeful

woman, women
are nouns, not adjectives, so say female president, female MPs etc rather than "woman president", "women MPs"

womenswear
but the magazine is Women's Wear Daily

Woolworths

Worcestershire sauce
not Worcester

working class
noun

working-class
adjective

working tax credit
replaced the working families tax credit

World Bank

world championship

World Cup
football, cricket or rugby

World Food Programme
may be abbreviated to WFP after first mention

World Health Organisation
WHO on second mention

world heritage site

World Series
It is a myth that this baseball event got its name from the New York World: originally known as the World's Championship Series, it had nothing to do with the newspaper
However, it has become tedious every time the World Series comes round to see its name cited as an example of American arrogance so please don't do it

World Trade Centre, Ground Zero
but the twin towers

worldwide
often redundant, eg "it has automotive plants in 30 countries worldwide" (as opposed to galaxy-wide?)

world wide web

would-be

wrack
seaweed; racked with guilt, not wracked; rack and ruin

wrinklies
patronising, unfunny and offensive way to refer to elderly people; do not use

wuss

WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly the World Wrestling Federation

 


WWF
formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature (or, in the US, World Wildlife Fund)