و (wāw) is letter 27 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ه hāʾ and ي yāʾ. Its sound is w, as in wet, or a long u. It never joins to the letter after it, so it has two shapes: و و. It is a moon letter, and its abjad value is 6.
Hear its name, واو (wāw):
Why wāw has two shapes, not four
Wāw is one of the six letters that never join to the letter after them: ا د ذ ر ز و. It joins only from the right, so its initial form is its isolated shape, و, and its medial form is its final shape, و. A word breaks into a new piece after it: in ورد (ward, roses), the letter after wāw starts again.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | و | U+FEED | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | و | U+FEED (same as isolated) | at the start of a word: the isolated shape, since nothing joins it on the left |
| Medial | و | U+FEEE (same as final) | inside a word: the final shape, and the next letter starts a new piece |
| Final | و | U+FEEE | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores both shapes as one character, U+0648 (ARABIC LETTER WAW); U+FEED and U+FEEE are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Wāw is number 9 of the 28 letters by frequency, 3.8% of all letters, in the 50,000 most common word forms of Arabic film and TV subtitles (hermitdave/FrequencyWords, OpenSubtitles 2018), each form counted as often as it occurs; it is final in 58% and alone in 42% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce wāw
The sound of wāw is w, as in wet, or a long u, written w / ū in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart. Wāw also writes a long vowel, so it has two sounds, and the words below use both.
Arabic words with wāw
These 5 everyday words show wāw in real writing: it is final in يوم, دلو and نور; alone in ورد and والد. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from other letters' worksheets and our list of Arabic family words, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Wāw here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ورد | ward | roses | alone | |
| يوم | yawm | day | final | |
| دلو | dalw | bucket | final | |
| نور | nūr | light | final | |
| والد | wālid | father | alone |
Wāw with al-, and its number
Wāw is a moon letter, so the l of al- (the) is pronounced before it: الورد is al-ward, the roses (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 6 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
How to tell wāw apart
Wāw is one of the letters with no dotted twin, so its shape alone identifies it. Wāw does two jobs. As a consonant it is the w of ورد (ward, roses); after a u it is the long ū of نور (nūr, light). It never joins to the letter after it, so a word with wāw in the middle breaks into pieces.
Practise writing wāw
Trace it on the free wāw tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 64 KB), which prints its two shapes beside ورد (ward), يوم (yawm) and دلو (dalw); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with wāw: what wallahi means and William in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter wāw?
The sound of wāw (و) is w, as in wet, or a long u, written w / ū in transliteration.
Does wāw join to the next letter?
No. Wāw is one of six letters, ا د ذ ر ز و, that join only to the letter before them. It has two shapes: و when nothing joins it, and و after a joining letter, and the letter after it always starts a new piece of the word.
Is wāw a sun letter or a moon letter?
A moon letter. Before wāw the l of al- is pronounced, so الورد is al-ward (the roses).
What is the abjad value of wāw?
6, in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order.