What does WWW stand for? It stands for World Wide Web, the huge collection of linked pages, pictures and videos that you open in a web browser. The three letters are also the start of many web addresses, as in www.example.com, where they point to the part of a site that serves those pages.
The web is not the same thing as the internet. The internet is the network of connected computers. The web is one service that runs on top of it, along with email, video calls and app data. That is why the full name stresses "web": pages tied to each other by links, spread across the whole world.
Quick facts
Stands for
World Wide WebType
InitialismHow to say it
"double u double u double u," or "dub dub dub"Started
Proposed in 1989, first site online in 1991In addresses
A subdomain, often optionalRelated terms
Not to be confused with
The internet, the network the web runs on
What does WWW stand for, and what each word means
| Letter | Word | Idea |
|---|---|---|
| W | World | Pages can live on computers in any country |
| W | Wide | Open to anyone, not one company or campus |
| W | Web | Pages connect to each other by links, like threads in a web |
WWW is said letter by letter, which makes it an initialism. It is a famous case where the short form takes longer to say than the full one: nine syllables for "double u double u double u" against three for "World Wide Web." More tech letter sets are listed on the tech acronyms hub.
Where the web came from
In 1989, the British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee proposed a system for sharing documents at CERN, a physics research center near Geneva, Switzerland. His plan combined three pieces that are still at the heart of the web today:
- HTML, the language used to write pages.
- HTTP, the rules a browser and a server use to send pages.
- URLs, the addresses that tell a browser where each page lives.
The first website went online in 1991. Soon after, the core software was made free for anyone to use, which helped the web spread far faster than older systems that charged fees. A group called the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, now works on shared standards for how pages should be built.
What www. means in a web address
In an address such as www.example.com, the www part is a subdomain, a label in front of the main domain name. Early on, companies used it to show which of their computers handled web pages, since others might handle mail or file transfers. The habit stuck.
Typing an address: You type "example.com" into a browser and the bar changes to "www.example.com." The site is set up to send visitors to its www version, so both lead to the same page.
Most sites now work with or without the letters, and many owners pick one form and send the other to it. You almost never need to type www. yourself. The ending after the last dot is a separate part of the address; see what dot com stands for.
The web vs the internet
People use the two words as if they meant the same thing, and in casual talk that is fine. In tech writing the difference matters:
- The internet is the global network of cables, routers and computers that carries data. It began well before the web.
- The web is a service that runs over the internet, made of pages and links you view in a browser.
- Other internet services include email, file transfers, online games and the data that phone apps send in the background. None of these need a web page.
Style guides now usually write "the web" and "the internet" in lowercase, while the full name World Wide Web keeps its capitals.
How people say WWW out loud
Because the formal reading is so long, speakers have come up with shortcuts. "Dub dub dub" is common among tech workers, and "triple w" is heard in some countries. In radio and TV ads, many announcers now skip the letters and just read the domain, such as "visit example dot com." Any of these is understood.
WWW in sentences
- "Type the address without the www and it should still load."
- "The World Wide Web made it easy to link one document to another."
- "Our old site used www, but the new one does not."
- "Students compared the early web with the internet as a whole."
- "On the flyer, the link starts with www and ends with our school name."
Questions people ask
What does WWW mean in a website address?
It is a subdomain that once marked the computer serving web pages for a domain. On most sites today it is optional, and the address works with or without it.
Who invented the World Wide Web?
Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist working at CERN in Switzerland, proposed it in 1989. The first website went online in 1991.
Are the web and the internet one thing?
Not quite. The internet is the network that carries data between computers. The web is one service on that network, made of linked pages you open in a browser.
Do I need to type www before a web address?
Usually not. Most browsers and sites will take you to the right page if you leave it off.
Is WWW an acronym?
By the strict definition it counts as an initialism, because each W is spoken on its own. Casual speakers say acronym anyway, and listeners understand.