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I.W.W.

American  
Or IWW

IWW British  

abbreviation

  1. Industrial Workers of the World

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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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

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