Wifi

How to spell wifi

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce wifi

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wifi mean?

1. nounA technology that lets computers, phones, and other devices connect to a network and the internet without cables.

Wifi in a sentence

• The cafe offers free wifi to anyone who buys a drink.

• The hotel room had no wifi signal at all, so she used her phone data instead.

Where does wifi come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word is a modern marketing coinage rather than an old inheritance. It was created in 1999 by the branding firm Interbrand for the industry group now called the Wi-Fi Alliance, who needed a catchy name for the new wireless networking standard known technically as IEEE 802.11. The name was deliberately fashioned to rhyme with 'hi-fi', the established shortening of 'high fidelity' used for good-quality audio equipment, so it would sound familiar and trustworthy to consumers. People often assume it stands for 'wireless fidelity', but that phrase was invented after the fact as a backronym; the name was chosen purely because it sounded right. Because the original trademark is styled 'Wi-Fi' with a capital and a hyphen, the all-lowercase run-together form 'wifi' is the everyday casual spelling that has spread through emails, notes, and signs. The chief spelling question for an adult writer is simply whether to keep the hyphen and capitals, so settling on one habitual form avoids the wobble.

How the word is built

• a coined brand name modelled on 'hi-fi'; not a true prefix-root-suffix compound, though it echoes 'wi(reless)'
• 'fi(delity)'