The two W-with-accent letters are ŵ and Ŵ, both carrying a circumflex. Neither has a Windows Alt code, so the reliable ways to type a W with accent are Word’s Alt+X trick (type 0175 then press Alt+X for ŵ), the macOS ABC Extended keyboard, or copying the glyph straight from the buttons below.
These are the only two precomposed accented forms of the letter W in Unicode. Both use the same accent mark, the circumflex (the small pointed hat), and differ only in case.
You will see ŵ most often in Welsh text. Everything you need to type either one is below.
W with accent: quick reference table
| Glyph | Name | Code point | Windows Alt code | Word (Alt+X) | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ŵ | Small W with circumflex | U+0175 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0175 then Alt+X | type 0175, then Alt+X | ŵ |
| Ŵ | Capital W with circumflex | U+0174 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0174 then Alt+X | type 0174, then Alt+X | Ŵ |
One column matters here: the Word codes are hexadecimal, not Alt-code decimal. Type the four characters shown, then press Alt+X. Do not put those numbers into an Alt+number sequence on the keypad, because there is no working Alt code for either letter.
About the circumflex and the two cases
Both W variants use one accent, the circumflex, so this set has no grave, acute, or tilde forms to confuse. The only choice you make is uppercase (Ŵ) versus lowercase (ŵ).
The uppercase and lowercase forms are separate Unicode characters with separate code points, U+0174 and U+0175. They are not two views of one code. When you type or copy, pick the case you actually need, because a search or a case-sensitive form treats them as different letters.
Type ŵ and Ŵ on Windows
There is no Alt code for either W with a circumflex, and no amount of leading-zero juggling creates one. If you need a genuine Alt-code letter, see the on-screen accent keyboard instead. For W, use one of these two routes.
Character Map (any Windows app)
- Press the Start button, type charmap, and open Character Map.
- Tick Advanced view, then type circumflex in the search box.
- Double-click Ŵ or ŵ, click Copy, and paste into your document.
The hex-input shortcut (advanced)
If you have enabled hex Unicode input in the Windows registry, you can hold Alt, press Plus on the numeric keypad, and type 0175. This is off by default and needs a numeric keypad, so most people are faster with Character Map or a paste from the buttons above.
Type ŵ and Ŵ on Mac
The standard US layout has no dead key for a circumflex over W, so switch to the ABC Extended input source first. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit, add ABC Extended, then select it from the input menu in the menu bar.
- Press Option+6. Nothing prints yet; this arms the circumflex.
- Press w for ŵ, or Shift+W for Ŵ.
If you would rather not change layouts, open the Character Viewer with Control+Command+Space, search circumflex, and double-click the W form you want. Mac has no Alt codes, so ignore any Windows Alt-code advice you find for this letter.
Type ŵ and Ŵ in Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook
Word gives you the cleanest route. Type the hex code, then convert it in place.
- Type
0175for ŵ or0174for Ŵ. - With the cursor right after the code, press Alt+X. Word replaces the digits with the letter.
Alt+X also works in Outlook and OneNote. It does not work in PowerPoint or Excel.
In PowerPoint, use Insert → Symbol → More Symbols, set the subset to Latin Extended-A, and pick Ŵ or ŵ. The same Insert → Symbol dialog works inside Word if you prefer clicking to typing codes.
You can also make it automatic. In Word, go to File → Options → Proofing → AutoCorrect Options and set a shortcut such as \wc to replace with ŵ. After that, typing your shortcut inserts the accented letter as you write.
Type ŵ and Ŵ in Excel and Google Sheets
Spreadsheets do not accept Alt+X, so use the character function, which takes the decimal code point.
- Excel:
=UNICHAR(373)returns ŵ, and=UNICHAR(372)returns Ŵ. Insert → Symbol also works. - Google Sheets:
=UNICHAR(373)and=UNICHAR(372)do the same. Sheets has no Insert Symbol menu at all.
To type the letter directly into a Sheets cell with any OS method, press F2 first to enter edit mode. If you only need the character once, copying it from the buttons at the top of this page is quicker than a formula.
Type ŵ and Ŵ in Google Docs
- Open Insert → Special characters.
- Type circumflex in the search box, or draw the accent mark in the sketch pad on the right.
- Click ŵ or Ŵ to drop it at the cursor.
For repeated use, set up a substitution under Tools → Preferences → Substitutions, mapping a short trigger to the accented letter.
Type ŵ and Ŵ on iPhone and Android
On Android with Gboard, press and hold the W key. A small popup shows the accented W options; slide to ŵ and release. Hold Shift first for Ŵ.
The stock iPhone keyboard does not offer accented W on a long-press of the W key. Two fixes work well. Add a Welsh keyboard under Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards, which exposes ŵ and ŷ, or create a text replacement.
To set a replacement, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement, paste ŵ into the Phrase field, and give it a shortcut like wcirc. From then on, typing your shortcut inserts the letter anywhere you type.
Type ŵ and Ŵ on a Chromebook
ChromeOS has no Alt codes, and a USB numpad will not change that. Use the Unicode shortcut, which takes the hex value.
- Place the cursor in a text field.
- Hold Ctrl+Shift+U. An underlined u appears.
- Type 0175 for ŵ or 0174 for Ŵ, then press Enter or Space.
Type only the hex digits, with no U+ prefix. Some web fields swallow the shortcut; if it fails, use the emoji and symbol picker at Launcher+Shift+Space, or paste the glyph.
Type ŵ and Ŵ in Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva
None of these apps has a built-in shortcut for a W with a circumflex. The fastest approach is the same in all of them: copy ŵ or Ŵ from the buttons near the top of this page and paste it in.
For anything you type often, lean on the operating system rather than the app. A Windows or Mac text replacement, or an Android/iPhone shortcut, inserts the letter automatically in Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva alike, because the substitution happens before the app ever sees your keystrokes.
W with accent in HTML and CSS
On the web you have named and numeric options. For the lowercase letter, use ŵ, ŵ, or the named entity ŵ. For the capital, use Ŵ, Ŵ, or Ŵ.
In CSS content, escape with the hex code point: content: "\0175"; for ŵ and content: "\0174"; for Ŵ. Serving the page as UTF-8 lets you paste the literal character instead, which is easier to read and edit.
Precomposed letters versus combining marks
Both ŵ and Ŵ are precomposed: one code point holds the letter and its accent together. That is the version in the copy buttons above and the version you want almost every time.
The same shape can also be built from two code points, a plain w followed by a combining circumflex (U+0302). It looks identical on screen but behaves differently. Search, sorting, filenames, and form validation can treat the two-code version as a different string, so a match may silently fail.
If a pasted ŵ misbehaves in a database or a login field, the culprit is usually this. Running the text through Unicode normalization (NFC) collapses the combining pair back to the single precomposed character and fixes the mismatch.
Troubleshooting ŵ and Ŵ
You see a box, a question mark, or a plain w. The font in use has no glyph for U+0174/U+0175.
Switch to a face with wide Latin Extended-A coverage, such as Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, or Noto Sans. The character is correct; only the display font is the problem.
Alt+X did nothing. Alt+X only works in Word, Outlook, and OneNote. In Excel, PowerPoint, Google Docs, or a browser field, use the method listed for that app above instead.
You typed the code as an Alt code and got the wrong character. There is no Alt code for either W. A keypad the verified method shown in the table or the verified method shown in the table pulls from a different character table and produces something unrelated, so use Character Map, Word’s Alt+X, or a paste.
The Mac dead key printed a caret then a w. You are on the standard layout. Switch to ABC Extended, then Option+6 followed by w composes correctly.
Where W with a circumflex is used
The circumflex W appears in Welsh, where ŵ and Ŵ are standard letters, for example in words like gŵr and gwŷr. You will also meet it when quoting Welsh place names and personal names accurately in otherwise English text.
Related letters and guides
Welsh also uses a circumflex over Y, covered in how to type Y with an accent mark. If you are working through several letters, these guides use the same methods:
- Typing V with an accent mark — another consonant with no default Alt code.
- Typing X with accents — Windows, Mac, and mobile routes.
- Typing U with accents — the vowel you often pair with ŵ.
- T with accent: every way to type it, same code-based approach.
For the full method set across every accent, read the complete guide to typing accented letters, or browse more guides in the accented letters collection.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Windows Alt code for ŵ or Ŵ?
No. Neither the lowercase ŵ nor the uppercase Ŵ has a working Alt code. Use Word’s Alt+X (type 0175 or 0174, then press Alt+X), Character Map, or paste the glyph.
Why does long-pressing W on my iPhone not show ŵ?
The stock iOS keyboard has no accented options on the W key. Add a Welsh keyboard in Settings, or create a text replacement that expands a shortcut into ŵ.
Which UNICHAR number gives the capital Ŵ in Excel?
Use =UNICHAR(372) for Ŵ and =UNICHAR(373) for ŵ. These are decimal values, which is what UNICHAR expects, not the hexadecimal U+0174 form.
My pasted ŵ fails a search or login. Why?
The text is probably built from a plain w plus a combining circumflex rather than the single precomposed character. Normalize it to NFC, or retype using the precomposed ŵ from this page, and the match will succeed.
What is the difference between ŵ and w̑ or ẃ?
ŵ carries a circumflex, the pointed hat. Marks like an acute (ẃ) or a breve are different accents and different characters. This guide covers only the two circumflex forms, ŵ and Ŵ, which are the precomposed accented W letters in Unicode.
Why does ŵ look different on my phone and my laptop?
That is font rendering, not a broken character. ŵ is plain text with no emoji version, so it simply uses whatever font each device applies. The code point is the same on both.