W/

What Does W/ Mean?

W/ means "with," as in "accompanied by" or "in addition to." It is commonly used as shorthand when texting or in informal writing and is usually typed or written in lowercase (as "w/"). Although the origin of this abbreviation is contested, it has been used at least since the rise of the fast-food industry in the 1950s. To save time when writing down food orders, waiters replaced the words "with" and "without" with the abbreviations w/ and w/o . For example:

Salad with dressing on the side = sl w/ d os.
Hamburger with fries = hb w/ f.

Since that time, the use of w/ as an abbreviation of "with" has become much more widely used. For example:

Ali: Hey, you have something on your chin... no, the 3rd one down.
Sam: Why don't you go and swim w/ the sharks?

Robbie: Will you go for a drink w/ me?
Susie: Can I bring my BF w/ me?

Image for W/

When I write W/, I mean this:

Burger w/ fries.

Video Summarizing W/

Here's a short video explaining the origins of w/ and w/o.

Summary of Key Points

We have summarized the key points in the table below:

W/
Definition:	With
Type:	Abbreviation
Guessability:	2: Quite easy to guess
Typical Users:	Adults and Teenagers

An Academic Look at W/

W/is a shortened version of the word "with," therefore it is a contraction. Contractions can be formed in a number of other ways, including:

Omitting letters from the word (e.g., pct (percent), obv (obviously)).
Using letters from the start and end of the word (e.g., adds, Dr (Doctor)).
Using an apostrophe to replace a letter or letters (e.g., don't (do not), can't (cannot)).

For reasons of brevity in text-based conversations, contractions are rarely followed by periods/full stops and apostrophes are routinely omitted.

Grammatically, w/ is used to replace the preposition with. For example: