What Does 'Wi-Fi' Really Mean?

When you set up your home internet, do you stick with the internet provider’s router name or do you re-name your Wi-Fi signal something clever, like “Pretty Fly for a Wi-Fi” or “Tell My Wi-Fi Love Her”? Whichever camp you’re in, if you’re not an IT person you might never have thought about the meaning of the word Wi-Fi. At first glance, you might assume it’s an abbreviation of the phrase wireless fidelity, on the pattern of Hi-Fi/high fidelity and Lo-Fi/low fidelity. But you may be surprised to learn that Wi-Fi isn’t an abbreviation and it doesn’t stand for anything; it’s just a name for wireless internet. 

In the late 1990s, work rapidly progressed on a new wireless technology that utilized radio waves instead of cables for the purpose of internet connectivity. This became known as the “IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence” (a phrase that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue). The developers of this new tech were in need of a more marketable term for commercial use. So in 1999, the newly formed Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) unveiled a simplified and much catchier alternative: Wi-Fi.

This trademarked term is now synonymous with wireless internet, and according to the official trademark, it should always be written as Wi-Fi (not wifi or WiFi). If you have trouble believing this somewhat unlikely origin story, consider the words or Phil Belanger, a founding member of WECA who presided over the selection of the title: “Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything. It is not an acronym. There is no meaning.”