I.W.W.
Americanabbreviation
abbreviation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The I.W.W. had more flash than breadth—the number of members probably never exceeded a hundred thousand—but the Wobblies caught the public imagination with their colorful posters, stirring songs, and flair for drama.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 4, 2019
A three-hundred-and-fifty-page file on Post attempted to tarnish him with evidence about everything from contacts with I.W.W. members to his advocacy of divorce reform.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 4, 2019
It depicts a young man stepping over a low barrier toward the viewer with one hand raised against a red sky emblazoned with the letters I.W.W., for the Industrial Workers of the World.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2013
The I.W.W., known as the Wobblies, was a powerful far-left union a century ago, but now is far smaller and weaker and often seeks to organize groups of workers that other unions overlook.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2011
Adam heard of the development of the I.W.W. with its angry angels.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
![]()
The Red Scare followed—the government arrested and deported radicals, breaking unions like the IWW and hobbling labor for a decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025
The prosperous classes saw the IWW as a grave threat to the country, one much aggravated by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 2, 2022
"Big" Bill Haywood told delegates at the founding convention of the IWW in 1905:
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2022
But Walter also strives for historical accuracy: The defiantly feminist IWW organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is central to the story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2020
As a result, William “Big Bill” Haywood formed the more radical IWW, or Wobblies, in 1905.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.