Word list — W
walkthrough
Section titled “walkthrough”Verdict: style
Use walkthrough.
Verdict: prefer
Use want for describing what the reader intends to do. Do not replace want with wish or would like.
war room
Section titled “war room”Verdict: avoid
Use an alternative, such as incident-management team or media monitoring room.
- Alternatives: warroom, war-room
- Replacements: incident-management team, media monitoring room
Verdict: acceptable
Ordinary word with a settled technical sense (a warm cache or standby); keep it for that meaning.
wearable
Section titled “wearable”Verdict: acceptable
Established category term for body-worn devices, common and clear enough to stand on its own.
wearable device
Section titled “wearable device”Verdict: acceptable
Standard phrasing for the device class; use it as written.
Verdict: style
Use lowercase web.
web server
Section titled “web server”Verdict: style
Two words, no hyphen.
webmaster
Section titled “webmaster”Verdict: avoid
Use website owner or administrator based on the actual role.
- Alternatives: web master
- Replacements: website owner, website administrator
Verdict: restricted
Don’t use while to make contrasts; use although instead. Use while as a time-based reference.
- Replacements: although
white glove
Section titled “white glove”Verdict: avoid
White glove as a metaphor for premium service is vague and dated. Use premium instead.
- Alternatives: white-glove, whiteglove
- Replacements: high-touch, premium, platinum-level
white hat hacker
Section titled “white hat hacker”Verdict: avoid
Use computer security specialist or ethical hacker instead.
- Replacements: computer security specialist, ethical hacker
white-box
Section titled “white-box”Verdict: avoid
Use clear-box testing instead.
- Replacements: clear-box
whitehat
Section titled “whitehat”Verdict: avoid
Use an alternative, such as legal, ethical, or following the rules.
- Alternatives: white hat, white-hat
- Replacements: legal, ethical, following the rules
whitelist
Section titled “whitelist”Verdict: avoid
Use the noun allowlist in place of whitelist. Don’t use the verb forms. Instead, rewrite them as approving entries or allowed.
- Alternatives: white list, white-list, whitelisted, white listed, white-listed, whitelisting, white listing, white-listing
- Replacements: allowlist
whitepaper
Section titled “whitepaper”Verdict: style
Use whitepaper.
- Alternatives: white paper
whitespace
Section titled “whitespace”Verdict: style
Write it as one word, whitespace, for the typographic and code sense.
- Alternatives: white space
Verdict: style
Capitalize and hyphenate as Wi-Fi; it is a trademarked name.
wildcard
Section titled “wildcard”Verdict: style
Write wildcard as one word.
wireframe
Section titled “wireframe”Verdict: style
Write wireframe as one word.
Verdict: avoid
Wish overstates and softens. Say want or need to state the requirement.
- Replacements: want, need
Verdict: restricted
With often makes the relationship with the subject or action sound vague. Rewrite so the relationship is explicit.
working memory
Section titled “working memory”Verdict: avoid
Working memory reads as a psychology term and is imprecise for the hardware sense. Use available memory for what is actually free.
- Replacements: available memory
workload
Section titled “workload”Verdict: acceptable
Common and unambiguous in computing for the demand placed on a system; use it freely.
World Wide Web
Section titled “World Wide Web”Verdict: avoid
World Wide Web is dated and formal. Use web instead.
- Replacements: web
Verdict: avoid
WWW is dated and rarely spoken. Write the web instead.
- Replacements: the web