world wide web
/ˈwɝld ˌwaɪd ˈwɛb/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.52 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
1
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
Usually preceded by the: all of the hypertext documents (web pages) on the Internet collectively, which are (1) stored in various inter-hyperlinked computers around the world, and (2) retrieved typically by means of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or (currently more often) its secure version (HTTPS), among others.
Example Sentences
- "WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project [title] […] Having a world wide web implies some solutions must be found for problems such as different access protocols and different node content formats. These issues are addressed by our proposal."
- "Additionally, gateways exist so that WAIS users can retrieve information from non-WAIS data bases like Gopher, developed by university users of Next computers, and the World Wide Web, which makes available physicists' research from many locations."
- "The mutant has made its way into a major orchestra, giving the much-slandered, much-abused alto string instrument more attention than it has had since an entire series of pages on the World Wide Web was devoted to viola jokes"
- "Anxiety about the World Wide Web tends to center on its excesses, on the overabundance of information, the overstimulation of graphics and gimmicks, the multiplicity of links."
- "Although the Internet has long been used to communicate a wealth of information, it was the rise of the World Wide Web, beginning in 1994, that led to the Internet's most rapid growth and acceptance as a medium of commerce. The Web can be thought of as the Internet's popular "multimedia" segment and is a primary platform for electronic commerce."
- "Consider for a moment that the Internet is about 40 years old, the microelectronics explosion happened only 30 years ago, the desktop computer appeared only about 25 years ago, the World Wide Web is really only a little more than a decade old, and that ubiquitous wireless Internet access is only now becoming a reality. Despite only relatively recent developmental history, we are facing an information explosion on the World Wide Web, making it necessary to build a better Web—an Intelligent Web—that will help users easily realize their information and communication needs."
Etymology
From worldwide + web. Coined by English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee and Belgian engineer and computer scientist Robert Cailliau in a paper published on 12 November 1990 (see quotations below).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈwɝld ˌwaɪd ˈwɛb/
- British English: /ˈwɜːld ˌwaɪd ˈwɛb/