World Wide Web

American  

[wurld wahyd web] / ˈwɜrld ˌwaɪd ˈwɛb /

noun

1. Usually the World Wide Web (except when used before a noun) a system of extensively interlinked hypertext documents: a branch of the internet. WWW

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World Wide Web British  

noun

1.  WWW.  computing a vast network of linked hypertext files, stored on computers throughout the world, that can provide a computer user with information on a huge variety of subjects

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World Wide Web Scientific  

/ wûrld /

1. The complete set of electronic documents stored on computers that are connected over the Internet and are made available by the protocol known as HTTP. The World Wide Web makes up a large part of the Internet.

2. See more at Internet

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World Wide Web Cultural  

1. See Internet.

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Etymology

Origin of World Wide Web

First recorded in 1990–95

Compare meaning

How does world-wide-web compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• World Wide Web vs. internet

Example Sentences

The web may be the most important metaphor of our time, from our web-of-life ecosystems to the World Wide Web that connects our devices.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

By the mid-1990s, with the introduction of the more user-friendly World Wide Web, bulletin boards fell out of favor.

From Salon • Dec. 8, 2025

Mainframe computers were disrupted by PCs, which were disrupted by the World Wide Web, which was disrupted by smartphones.

From Barron's • Oct. 14, 2025

"If it's smarter than you, then we have to keep it contained," warned Tim Berners Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, talking to the BBC earlier this month.

From BBC • Oct. 9, 2025

The first big breakthrough to bring the Internet alive as a tool of connectivity and collaboration—a tool that anyone, not just computer geeks, could use—was Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman