All articles starting with W
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World spirit
World spirit (Weltgeist) is Hegel's term for Geist realizing itself through world history, distinct from Volksgeist and absolute spirit; central to his Lectures on the Philosophy of World History and its freedom-centered, Eurocentrism-criticized teleology.
World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, ISU long-track title decided over two runs each of 500m and 1000m using Samalog points; first held 1970 in West Allis, 2026 champions Jenning de Boo and Dione Kok.
World Steel Association
The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is a non-profit industry body headquartered in Brussels, founded in 1967 as the International Iron and Steel Institute, whose members produce around 85% of global steel.
World Stroke Day
World Stroke Day, October 29, founded by the World Stroke Organization in 2006; annual themed campaigns (#Precioustime, #GreaterThan, Every Minute Counts/#ActFAST) promoting FAST stroke symptom recognition, emergency response, prevention, and stroke care advocacy worldwide.
World Stroke Organization
The World Stroke Organization (WSO), founded in 2006, unites stroke professionals and national societies worldwide; the WHO recognizes it as the leading authority on stroke.
World Suicide Prevention Day
World Suicide Prevention Day, observed 10 September since 2003, is organized by IASP and co-sponsored by WHO to raise awareness that suicide is preventable; themes include Creating Hope Through Action and Changing the Narrative on Suicide.
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations summit held in Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005, which set the agenda for global digital cooperation.
World Surf League
World Surf League (WSL), formerly the Association of Surfing Professionals, runs professional surfing's Championship Tour, Challenger Series, Qualifying Series, Longboard, Junior, and Big Wave events, with five-judge wave scoring out of 10 and heat totals out of 20.
World Table Tennis Championships
World Table Tennis Championships, ITTF world championship since London 1926 (6–13 December); Hungary won the first men's team title; Victor Barna holds a record 22 golds; centenary team Finals return to London in 2026.
World Taekwondo (세계태권도)
World Taekwondo (세계태권도), formerly the WTF, is the IOC- and IPC-recognized federation governing Olympic and Paralympic taekwondo. Founded 1973 in Seoul; renamed 2017; 215 members; 1–5 point kyorugi scoring via electronic PSS.
World Teachers' Day
World Teachers' Day, held 5 October since 1994 and co-convened by UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF, and Education International, commemorates the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation on teachers' status; each edition carries an annual theme and awards the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize.
World Team Olympiad
World Team Olympiad: quadrennial WBF bridge national-team championship, first held 1960 in Turin, leap years, Open (Vanderbilt Trophy), Women, and from 2000 Senior series; renamed World Bridge Games in 2008.
World Tenpin Masters
World Tenpin Masters: annual invitational ten-pin bowling tournament founded 1998 in England by Matchroom Sport, also styled AMF World Tenpin Masters; 16 bowlers, two-game aggregate knockout, televised on Sky Sports; Tore Torgersen won three titles, Dominic Barrett the last in 2009.
World Touring Car Championship
FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), touring car world championship held in 1987 and 2005–2017; champions include Ravaglia, Priaulx, Muller, Lopez, Bjork; replaced by WTCR in 2018.
World Tourism rankings
World tourism rankings: UN Tourism's country league tables of international tourist arrivals (Barometer, Tourism Highlights), plus receipts and outbound-spending tables; France led 2024 arrivals (102m), the US led receipts (USD 214bn), China top spender.
World Trade Center (1973–2001)
The World Trade Center (1973–2001) was a seven-building commercial complex in Lower Manhattan, built for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
World Trade Center (2001–present)
The World Trade Center is the rebuilt Lower Manhattan campus replacing the complex destroyed on September 11, 2001, including One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial.
World Trade Center (film)
World Trade Center is a 2006 American docudrama directed by Oliver Stone, starring Nicolas Cage, about two officers buried in the rubble of the September 11 attacks.
World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories
World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories claim the Twin Towers and WTC 7 fell to pre-planted explosives; NIST, FEMA, and peer-reviewed engineering studies attribute the collapses to impact damage and fire.
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site, also called Ground Zero, is the 16-acre Port Authority-owned Lower Manhattan campus of the original Twin Towers, destroyed on 9/11 and rebuilt with One WTC, the Oculus hub, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, and the Perelman Performing Arts Center.
World Trade Center station (PATH)
World Trade Center station is a PATH rapid transit terminal beneath the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, serving trains from Newark and Hoboken, New Jersey.
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization of 166 members that administers global trade rules and settles disputes, though its Appellate Body has been paralyzed since 2019.
World Transplant Games
World Transplant Games: international multi-sport event for organ transplant recipients, first held Portsmouth 1978 with 99 athletes; run by the WTGF (formed 1987), Summer Games every two years, Dresden 2025, Leuven 2027.
World tree
World tree: the cross-cultural axis mundi motif of a great tree connecting underworld, earth, and heavens. Known names include Yggdrasill, arbor mundi, kalpavriksha, and the Maya Wakah-Chan; found across Eurasia and the Americas, absent from Australia.
World Trigger (ワールドトリガー)
World Trigger (ワールドトリガー) is a sci-fi battle manga by Daisuke Ashihara, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2013 and Jump SQ. since 2018, about Border defending Mikado City from Neighbors; 30 volumes, Toei anime with three seasons.
World Turtle
World Turtle (cosmic turtle, world-bearing tortoise): mythological motif of the earth resting on a turtle, in Hindu Kurma/Akupara lore, Chinese cosmology, and Turtle Island creation stories of Algonquian- and Iroquoian-speaking peoples.
World union of olympic cities
World Union of Olympic Cities (UMVO, Union Mondiale de Villes Olympiques), founded 2002, Lausanne-based association of former and future Olympic host cities and legacy stakeholders, IOC-recognized 2015, sharing Olympic legacy activation experience.
World Values Survey
World Values Survey (WVS), global academic survey program founded by Ronald Inglehart, running since 1981 across seven waves and nearly 120 countries, measuring values, democracy support, and cultural change; wave 8 runs 2024–2026.
World Video Game Hall of Fame
World Video Game Hall of Fame, at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, established 2015; honors influential electronic games by four criteria; 49 inductees as of early 2026, from Pong to Silent Hill.
World Vision International
World Vision International is an evangelical Christian relief and development organization founded by Bob Pierce in 1950 during the Korean War, known for child sponsorship.